Suchergebnisse

China currently faces increasingly serious social conflicts. In the past, China's approach to resolving social conflicts was 'social management'. Now, however, it is turning to the development of 'social governance'. This change reflects the inability of government acting alone to recognise and to address comprehensively the type of social problems that require co-ordination of social forces. Our research identifies three dimensions of governance and provides a comparative framework allowing us to illuminate how social governance as conceived in China differs from that in Western countries. Under China's current conditions, the strengthening and development of social governance is a holistic process. Neither market-centrism nor state-centrism is pursued, and pure social-centrism is not the favoured direction of development; the path chosen is rather a state-led social pluralism. The implications we see for the Government are that it should first transform its own functions to achieve a substantially higher quality of public service. This would put it in a position to empower (civil) society to mobilise multiple and varied social forces to participate so that social conflict can be optimally addressed. [Copyright John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.]

The rise of social pedagogy in recent years has led to a revival of discourses and practices in the fields of social work and pedagogy. Both fields have seen a renewed way of interpreting social and educational relationships and professional practice. This, in turn, has resulted in ongoing analysis and debate regarding the academic and professional affiliation of social pedagogy in recent decades. The aim of this article is to provide an outline of how these disciplines and practices have evolved in Spain. This study adopts a comparative perspective to present a descriptive analysis of the history, training and areas of professional intervention of social pedagogy, social education and social work. The first section discusses the complexity of the relationships between them. In the following two sections, the historical evolution of these disciplines is analysed, highlighting their fundamental milestones. This is followed by a comparison of their respective professional profiles and initial training. The next section then reveals shared professional intervention areas and those that are specific to each professional practice. By way of conclusion, a critical reflection is provided on the way in which the relationship between social pedagogy and social work is usually approached, and also the positioning of the relationship between these disciplines and practices.