Moral Resources, Political Capital and the Development of Social Work in China: A Case Study of City J in Shandong Province

Endeavouring to explore how social work can develop under the tensions between the core values of the profession and the socialist political doctrines in China, this paper applies the moral resources and political capital perspective to examine the growth of a social service organisation, G.A.S., in City J. The findings indicate that self-chosen moral resource-I, societal-recognised moral resource-II and self-achieved political capital-II are the key factors for the development of social work in China. On the one hand, social work institutions can develop because they possess socially accepted values such as caring and volunteerism as the moral resource-II, which helps them achieve performance legitimacy and political capital-II via their professional services. On the other hand, although some social work values like democracy and participation are not formally accepted by the government, these values may gradually affect one's social life through the professional services delivered by social workers. Moreover, a social work institution's success in obtaining political capital-II may not necessarily contribute to the development of professional social work, unless it insists on the core values of social work as its moral resource-I.