| Over the past ten years, although the government has actively promoted the development of social work, the legitimacy of social work is still frequently questioned reflecting its multi-dimensional theoretical significance and practical characteristics. Based on the critical reflection on the existing theories and practices, this article constructs the framework of the legitimacy of social work from three dimensions of legitimacy of regulation, legitimacy of recognition, and legitimacy of effectiveness. Universities, governments and social workers have respectively and elementarily constructed the legitimacy of social work through the introduction of knowledge from outside to inside, top-down institutional construction, and the inexperienced social workers’ professional practices. However, the legitimacy of social work still encounters many problems such as the absence of balance and system, a lack of mutual recognition and the existence of cultural barriers, the isolation from the masses and the insufficiency of effectiveness, which finally lead to its suspended practical plight. This will require the legitimacy of social work to be taken root from the plight of suspension. Thus, the legitimacy of social work need the guide of the social development to optimize the whole social work system, the enhancement of mutual identity to localize social work, and the correlation with daily life practice, which can make the social work serve effectively, reconstruct the legitimacy of social work, and achieve the contemporary mission of social work to contribute to the realization of the shared and developed social construction. |
