Towards a pragmatic approach: a critical examination of two assumptions of indigenization discourse

Abstract

The current discourse of indigenization has been dominated by a normative approach that puts culture and social work values at the centre of discussions of social work's transference ‘from the West to the rest’. Taking a social constructionist perspective, this article argues that we need to critically examine some underlying assumptions of this normative approach, which may have led to misunderstandings of indigenization. The pragmatic approach, which I suggest as an alternative, views indigenization as a process in which various actors with various cultural lenses select the components of Western social work that can be integrated with, or replace, existing local social care practices. The purpose of this integration and replacement is to better serve the needs of the receiving society and its people.

在主流的本土化论术中，主要是基于由文化与社会工作价值为中心的价值性进路，来讨论社会工作如何从西方转移到其他地方。本文尝试以社会建构观点提出，我们有需要批判性地探讨这进路的一些背后假设；这些假设可能误导对本土化的讨论与理解。基于对这些假设的评论，本文提出以实用性进路作为另类进路来重新调教本土化论述的焦点；本土化是一个过程，其中由众多带有不同文化视野的行动者，尝试选择与商议西方社会工作的不同元素，来与本土社会照顾实务整合，甚至替代。最终目的是更能好地服务接收社会与其群众。

Keywords:

• indigenization
• social construction
• international social work
• pragmatism
• China

Notes

1. The ‘West’ in this article can also be understood as the ‘Global North’, ‘developed’ countries or ‘industrially advanced’ countries. Although these groups are basically similar, each has its own logical and ideological connotations. In this article, I adopt the term ‘West’ not only for convenience but also to emphasize the continuing imperialist sentiment in indigenization discourse.

2. In the literature, authors quite often use the adjective ‘Eurocentric’ when they are referring to the predominance of research from Anglophone countries. To be consistent with my use of ‘West’, I have decided to use the adjective ‘Western’.

3. The word ‘indigenous’ has political implications as a result of the global Indigenization Movement (Yan and Tsang 2008). I use the label ‘local’, which does not share these connotations.

4. Being cognizant of the complex relationship among these elements, I use the word ‘application’ here for two reasons. Firstly, theories and skills are all about the functional aspects of social work and tend to be scrutinized according to their instrumentality. Secondly, even among social constructionists in the social work profession, theories and skills are highly interrelated (Parton 2000) and institutionally contextualized (Payne 1997).