The utilisation of Ubuntu across cultures: A case study of a rural development programme in China

Conceptual considerations for indigenising social work knowledge and its utilisation

The authors have oriented the study on critical realism. This is the philosophy of social sciences proposed and developed by an English philosopher, Roy Bhaskar (2002). It pinpoints only the ‘truth’ regarding specific sociocultural contexts. Thus, ‘unobservable structures cause observable events and the social world can be understood only if people understand the structures that generate events’ (Bal, 2020). According to this orientation, an understanding of the utilisation of Ubuntu should examine how the stakeholders interpret its uses, from their respective backgrounds, in a particular real-world setting throughout the process of indigenisation.

Unlike knowledge rooted in Western societies, Ubuntu has no superior and prescriptive status to be recognised. Non-Western philosophies are still suppressed in our field of practice (Mayaka and Truell, 2021). Furthermore, the indigenous value of Ubuntu practised in African contexts would paradoxically become something exotic while it is being promoted across sociocultural borders. For example, the local people, especially those living in non-Western regions, might perceive Ubuntu as another imported knowledge, just like others from the West. Therefore, the potential contribution of Ubuntu in local contexts could be overlooked. Hence, deliberate planning of its promotion would be necessary. The discussion regarding the issues of power struggle and balance among the stakeholders during the process of indigenisation is also found in related literature (Muchiri et al., 2019).

To foster the utilisation of knowledge in social work, Heinsch et al. (2016) proposed an interaction model in which the relationship between researchers and practitioners is reformed. These two types of stakeholders in knowledge utilisation should not only simply collaborate, but also dissolve their respective identities bounded by mainstream hierarchal classifications, such as ‘research-practice’ and ‘know-do’, to maximise the possibility of utilising the knowledge together. In other words, to facilitate a negotiation process of indigenisation, a pragmatic approach (Yan, 2013) should be adopted. A shared understanding of the stakeholders can then be expressed, fulfilling the uses of social work knowledge within a particular sociocultural context.

Considering similar ideas discussed in the foregoing social work literature, the philosophical orientation of critical realism can extend a research direction for utilising Ubuntu, out of its indigenous background, in other cultural contexts. It provides scaffolding for shaping the focus and methods of the study (Flynn and McDermott, 2016). Operationally, the authors decided to use their respective personal characteristics to assess how the concept of Ubuntu, revealed from the literature above, can provide useful interpretation for social work practice in a case such as that reported below. Details of the research procedures are illustrated later.

Significance of the case selected

The case was chosen based on its practical impact, as well as the theoretical feasibility of utilising Ubuntu in China. It is a rural development programme located in Guangdong, the richest region in China in terms of its leading position in economic contribution to the country. In 2020, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Guangdong was over 11 trillion RMB; it has ranked at the top in the country for 32 consecutive years (Jerry, 2021). Behind this promising achievement, a polarity of social development has been reported where most rural areas were deserted (Meng et al., 2019). According to the information obtained from the Department of Civil Affairs of Guangdong Province, with permission to use it, around 98% of the provincial government’s funding of social work was allocated in its Pearl River Delta area, a more urbanised region, from 2013 to 2016. Only 2% was distributed to its eastern, western, and northern areas – the mountainous and rural regions. Furthermore, the Pearl River Delta accounts for more than 90% of Guangdong’s social work agencies, as well as more than 86% of its total licensed social workers.

Making up about half of its population, the rural areas in China exhibit complex social problems. First, the hukou system (household registration system) established since the Mao period has caused significant rural–urban gaps in all public provisions (Ku et al., 2019). Compared to their urban counterparts, rural residents usually have limited access to education, health services, and social protections, leading to consistently less economic and social well-being (Treiman, 2012). Second, since the economic reform in 1979, rural labour has continuously migrated to urban areas for job opportunities, leaving the children, the elderly, and some women (as caregivers) in the villages. Without the presence of the young and middle-aged population, the original community culture and neighbourhood assistance traditions keep declining. Third, the welfare delivery in rural areas mainly relies on town-level governments and corresponding village-level organisations. The delivery systems have been critiqued for issues such as over-bureaucratisation (Fan and Li, 2015), deviation from welfare policy objectives (Li et al., 2017) and unjust allocations (Song et al., 2020).

To address the unmet social service needs in the remote rural areas and reduce the urban–rural welfare gap in China, the Department of Civil Affairs of Guangdong has initiated a large-scale social service programme entitled the ‘Double Hundred Plan’ (Shuang Bai Ji Hua, DHP) since 2017. According to the official website (Lugeng Social Work Development Center, 2022), the DHP plans 407 stations covering all townships in Guangdong. Most of the stations are located in the remote rural communities with a higher poverty rate and lower coverage of social services than the urban areas (e.g. Guangzhou). The local rural governments employ between three and eight social workers at the town (street) level in each station. The Guangdong provincial government is then responsible for providing supervisory support to the social workers.

Several publications regarding the outcomes of the DHP have been identified in the Chinese literature (Lugeng Social Work Development Center, 2022). They have mainly recognised the efforts of the DHP for developing an indigenous model of professional social work practice in rural China. An example of indigenising Ubuntu in the context of rural China, without oppressing local values, will be created when the knowledge of Ubuntu can be illustrated as being relevant and useful for the DHP.

Theoretically, Ubuntu offers an opportunity to reflect on and advance social work practice in rural China. Some local Chinese scholars (e.g. Meng et al., 2019) stated that it was difficult to adapt the Western social work approaches for responding to local social problems and needs, because of the unique socioeconomic context in rural China. Nevertheless, Ubuntu is different from mainstream philosophies and practices from the West. It is rooted in the contexts of African countries where the issues of rural development are also being prioritised. The conceptual and practical discussions of how Ubuntu is related to rural development in Africa are also found in the literature (Omodan, 2020). Consequently, further assessment of how Ubuntu’s ideas can be utilised in the case of the DHP, because of its relevance to the sociocultural context in rural China, should be promising.

Methods

The authors adopted critical reflection as the research design to assess the utilisation of Ubuntu knowledge in the DHP. According to Fook (2011), related experiences of the first author of the DHP were reflected with the support of the second author. Apart from depicting the experiences, they unearthed the assumptions, such as the values and conceptual considerations of the DHP. Then, an assessment of how the concept of Ubuntu can reveal or devise an alternative (and even better) understanding of the practice of the DHP was conducted.

The first author collected the information about the case. First, he served as a part-time supervisor of the DHP from June 2017 to December 2018. During that time, he regularly visited some stations as well as supervised the corresponding social workers. His visits took place once per month and lasted two days per visit. Throughout the process, the first author closely observed the work performed by his supervisees to obtain a deeper understanding of their work. To facilitate an assessment of the study, the first author has summarised the information collected from four different service stations via the following channels: his own written records of supervision practice, and secondary data such as social workers’ case recordings, project reports, and other documents he received as a supervisor. The first author also assisted the social workers in publishing their practical experiences on the official DHP social media account. In addition, he was able to collect information about the DHP via his working network developed over the years. Consequently, the first author has accumulated fruitful experiences based on his prolonged engagement and participant observations in the DHP.

The second author developed the assessment strategies. He summarised the understanding of Ubuntu that was set out in the opening paragraphs of this article. The Chinese version of the global agenda translated by CASWE (2020), one of the official social work organisations in China, was also reviewed to articulate any culturally relevant understanding already shared in the local context. No further translation was conducted since both authors can read written English and Chinese. Then, the two authors together conducted the assessment, which was a deliberation of the experiences of the DHP concerning the preceding process of critical reflection. The assessment was eventually concluded by proposing a relevant language, as shown in the next section, for revealing and/or devising the utilisation of Ubuntu in the case of the DHP within the capacity of the authors (Fook, 2011).

The idea of researcher triangulation (Denzin, 1989) was further adapted to justify the assessment process conducted by the two authors. This is a data analysis method able to not only discover convergent results, but also highlight different perspectives upheld by them to illuminate a more complementary understanding of the case studied (Yin, 2014). Although both authors have been teaching and conducting social work research in China for some years, their sociocultural backgrounds are not the same. Apart from working for the DHP for a while, the first author was brought up in a rural area of China. This enabled him to apply an emic viewpoint, unveiling the local concerns of the programme. Conversely, the second author was raised in an urban region outside the Chinese mainland and had no participation in the DHP before the study. Etic and relatively detached viewpoints can, therefore, be employed in exploring any uses of Ubuntu in the DHP.

Based on the foregoing differences in the personal characteristics of the authors, they were able to build a dialogic relationship via critical reflection. Fook (2011) stated that a relationship can be considered as being that of co-researchers when a synthesis of their different perspectives could enable self-empowerment. This is a concretisation of the philosophical orientation of this study, minimising the potential conflict between the authors because of suspicion or unclarified interests in each other. It is rather an alliance, which is mutually beneficial for answering the shared research question: How can Ubuntu be utilised out of African contexts, such as the case of the DHP in China?

This study was approved by the DHP provincial office and the first author’s university. The identifiers were deleted to ensure confidentiality and anonymity.

Significant experiences and the assessment of the uses of Ubuntu in the DHP

Four themes for assessing the utilisation of Ubuntu were reported; all of them were extracted from the authors’ reflections on the significant experiences identified in the DHP. First, the first author affirmed that the issues of spirituality, embedded in traditional culture, should not be promoted as a use of Ubuntu in the case of the DHP and even in China. Second, both authors agreed to the use of traditional cultural activities in the DHP for the promotion of bonding with the villagers, and even between the people and their local communities, as proposed in Ubuntu. Third, although no technical implication was drawn from Ubuntu by the first author, he has realised the importance of the relational elements revealed in the historical development of social work. Finally, the authors found that a holistic framework guiding the practice of the DHP can be established by considering the ideas of Ubuntu.

The limitation for utilising the spiritual elements of Ubuntu in China

In traditional China, an ancestral hall (ci tang) is mainly used to offer sacrifices to ancestors and sages. It is also a place to handle community events such as marriage and funerals, and for celebrating the venerable old and new-borns of a new generation. Sometimes, it can be a venue for clan relatives to discuss family affairs. The ancestral hall can also be a symbol for connecting ancestors, clan members, and future generations; however, this function was not found in the DHP.

The villages served by the DHP generally have poor public service facilities. Some villages have no venues for villagers to hold public activities. Nonetheless, many ancestral halls were identified as being abandoned or idle. Therefore, the first author supervised social workers reconstructing these public spaces for the local communities. The interaction and relationship with the local people were, thus, enriched throughout the process, and community bonding was built. Below is an illustration of one of the successful experiences.

In the initial stage of intervention, the social workers working in an East Guangdong village found that the ancestral hall in the local community was suffering from lack of maintenance. The room was covered with dust, large areas of the walls were caving in, the ground was covered with moss, and the doors and windows were rotten and damaged. Here, the social workers worked with the villagers to clean the hall together. They also mobilised capable people (carpenters) in the village to repair and paint the doors and windows. To villagers who could not participate in direct works, the social workers appealed for their donations in terms of money and furniture. The inauguration of the restoration of the ancestral hall was finally held with a traditional collective banquet. Since then, the social workers have used the ancestral hall as a public place for organising various community education activities, such as promoting the concepts of respecting the old and loving the young, filial piety to parents and protecting the environment. The social workers also met the older people and women, who had been left behind by their family members working in urban regions, at the hall to discuss community issues as well as provide group work activities.

Both authors debated whether the use of ancestral halls could extend to those spiritual considerations of Ubuntu found in the literature (Van Breda, 2019). The second author argued that the symbolic meaning and function of the ancestral hall is spiritual. It is the place for linking the ancestors and descendants within one clan. Therefore, the social workers in the DHP could reactivate spiritual practices like ancestor worship. Notwithstanding, the first author highlighted that the interpretation of the second author could not be achieved in the political and sociocultural context of China nowadays. Since 1949, China has become a socialist nation and its political ideology advocates Marxism with belief in atheism. Therefore, ancestor worship should be perceived as superstitious culture, which hinders social development. Consequently, the DHP social workers and others working in this context ought to have no grounds to promote politically incorrect initiatives.

Regardless of the ideological argument above, the first author admitted that the spiritual dimension of Ubuntu illustrates a possibility of utilising ancestral halls and other traditional elements following the official discourse in China. For example, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has been promoting a set of moral principles, called core socialist values, like harmony and friendship, since 2013 (China Daily, 2017). Based on an understanding of these values, the use of the ancestral hall can be justified for building a supportive relationship within the DHP villages.

The use of traditional culture revealed by Ubuntu

Before the intervention of the DHP, the villages had no collective activities, and the villagers were indifferent to each other. Most of the villages with little access to public services were full of vulnerable people and social problems were prominent. Based on the supervisory experiences and participant observations of the first author, the social workers in the DHP were devoted to utilising the elements of traditional culture to foster social relationships among the villagers and develop community bonding.

In the calendar of Chinese festivals, there are numerous rituals and social gatherings that can be arranged. Therefore, the DHP social workers used those activities in traditional festivals and organised different events throughout the year. For example, they worked with the villagers to prepare rice dumplings for the dragon-boat festival (around May to June) and mooncake for the mid-autumn festival (around September to October) that all the villagers ate together. Simultaneously, various activities for different traditional festivals were also organised, like lion dancing and Spring Festival couplets. The villagers were amazed that their communities were being reactivated. Consequently, social networks among the villagers have been established or reactivated along with traditional cultural activities. For example, the local women who had been left behind were organised to establish mutual aid groups by preparing traditional food. The older people in the villages were mobilised to participate in various events such as calligraphy and Cantonese opera.

Both authors agreed that the DHP experiences utilising traditional culture as the medium for promoting community development related to the concept of Ubuntu. Ubuntu emphasises the relationship between people and interpersonal mutual assistance in the community. Similarly, traditional Chinese culture also stresses collective consciousness, human relations, reciprocity and mutual support of the neighbourhood. However, the rapid urbanisation and industrialisation of China have changed this situation. The concept of Ubuntu can remind society of the importance of interpersonal relations.

The first author further argued that Ubuntu can inspire the functional uses of traditional culture in rural development in China. The style of policy discourse on the rural issues in China is problem-focused (e.g. Zheng, 2020). The Ubuntu concept therefore provided an alternative perspective from which the first author interpreted traditional culture as a resource for rural development. This new understanding can support the first author to indigenise related practice models, like a developmental approach (Han and Huang, 2019), for future DHP works and other social work practices with convincing justification.

Ubuntu illustrates the diversity of rationality in the social work profession

As a social work supervisor, the first author has guided his DHP supervisees to conduct services in villages and has carefully studied more than 70 service cases published on the official website of the DHP. It was commonly found that many vulnerable groups were not familiar with welfare policies and were overwhelmed and powerless despite the bureaucratic procedures available. In practice, the DHP social workers accompanied, assisted and guided the service users to access the rights to which they were entitled in the policies.

In another example, in West Guangdong, the social worker found an older adult with white hair, a hunchback and visual impairment enjoying the cool under a tree but sitting alone. The social worker called him Xu Bo (pseudonym). Xu Bo was 81 years old. He was physically weak and had been widowed for many years. His daughter-in-law and his second daughter had died of illness, and his eldest daughter had married far away, and he had no contact with her. Xu Bo and his son depended on each other. Moreover, the son seemed to be intellectually disabled at a mild level. Xu Bo’s own education level was not high. He had little contact with the outside world and thus lacked communication with others. Before the intervention of the DHP social worker, Xu Bo was mainly financially supported by his younger brother. The social worker suggested that he should apply for various allowances that he was eligible for. Xu Bo felt that he was incompetent and useless, and thus it was meaningless for him to apply for these allowances. After Xu Bo had been informed that taking a medical assessment at the hospital was necessary, he was worried that he would not obtain a result even if he spent money. He also found it difficult to handle the assessment procedures. Based on the social worker’s initial calculation, Xu Bo could successfully apply for the allowance based on the above facts. Therefore, the social worker accompanied Xu Bo while he went through the application procedures, assisted him in filling in various forms, and prepared related documentation for him. In addition, the social worker escorted Xu Bo and his son to the hospital to assess the severity of their disabilities. Finally, Xu Bo received the allowances according to the policies, and he told the social worker, ‘We are not relatives or friends, but you help us in such devoted, detailed, and caring ways. I can only sincerely thank you’.

There is a significant difference in the two authors’ interpretations of the foregoing experience. The first author insisted that the social workers trained and working for the DHP should be more reasonably perceived as a relatively fair and neutral third party in policy implementations. Most DHP social workers are not local people; their vested interests are relatively detached from the local network. From the perception of the second author, although neutrality does contribute to welfare provision, it should not override the foundation of social work practice rooted in relationship building. This foundation is also consistent with the authors’ understanding of Ubuntu for building an inclusive relationship between social workers and service users.

A reflection of the second author on the utilisation of Ubuntu in a relational base of social work practice is as follows. The DHP requires social workers to be stationed in assigned villages and to then implement those welfare policy measures initiated by the civil affairs system. The DHP social workers assess the welfare needs of vulnerable people using surveys and home visits. These assessments provide a comprehensive understanding of the marginalised villagers and help social workers to establish a mutual trusting relationship with them. Therefore, the service users can be treated as human beings rather than just their information being recorded in case files for administration. The social workers can precisely identify the gaps between welfare policy design and actual implementation based on the rapport they have built. They can also deliver the services to those in need with respect and empathy.

Whereas relationship building throughout an effective helping process should be a unique feature of the social work profession (Folgheraiter, 2007), it seems not to be highlighted in currently fashionable models such as evidence-based or informed practice. After the discussion above, the first author was awakened to the fact that this diversified understanding of social work’s nature was seldom present, throughout his career. A technical approach for professionalising social work in China is also reported in the literature (Lei and Huang, 2017). Therefore, all of these discoveries imply another use of the philosophy of Ubuntu: it provides a reminder of a more deliberated yet not one-sided consideration of using different types of social work knowledge for effectiveness.

Ubuntu reveals the possibility of developing a holistic understanding of the DHP

The rationale of the DHP advocates stationing in villages (i.e. social workers live and work with villagers) with an emphasis on protecting the rights of vulnerable people. Meanwhile, numerous service users identified by the social workers were vulnerable to multiple problems. Thus, the social workers had to coordinate and integrate the resources of different functional departments and organisations both inside and outside the community. Most of the examples published on the official DHP website also depicted this complex nature of service provision. The authors summarised one of these for reflection.

Qiang (pseudonym) was injured while working, resulting in paraplegia. He remained lying in bed, his body atrophying, suffering from infection with bedsores and other diseases, and rarely socialised. His mother was diagnosed with an intellectual disability. His father made a living by working freelance and scavenging with his mother. Qiang’s brother was his chief caregiver and, thus, unable to work. Consequently, Qiang was in a poor economic condition and owed more than 40,000 yuan in medical expenses. The family living conditions were also unsatisfactory. Qiang and the family members lived with their poultry, and sundries and garbage were piled up in front of their house. Another issue was that Qiang’s home was located at a corner of the village. This location led to his having a weak social network in the village.

In dealing with the foregoing situation, the DHP social workers took the following initiatives to fulfil the needs of Qiang and his family:

The authors’ reflection on the foregoing experience reveals the possibility of blending different social work traditions in the practice of the DHP. The features of the Settlement House Movement, such as living with the poor and building a partnership with service users, were identified. A psycho-social assessment similar to that of the Charity Organisation Society was also found to be a resource for mobilisation and related interventions like home visits. However, the authors admitted that it would be naive to conclude that no conceptual framework can be developed to guide the practice.

Holistic approaches to integrating social work traditions can be identified in the literature (e.g. Thompson et al., 2019). Notwithstanding, how they could be indigenised for use in the DHP needs to be further examined. By considering the four significant experiences depicted above, Ubuntu should be an eligible candidate for building a holistic framework of practice in the DHP. This framework could incorporate a more humane arrangement for service delivery and financial support in facing the urban–rural disparity in China. The values of Ubuntu interpreted by the authors, such as strengthening solidarity and relationships between people and the environment and building inclusive social work working relationships, can also contribute as a moral basis of socially just practice (Chu et al., 2009). Further research to empower the DHP social workers reflecting the use of the framework proposed could be supported by utilising a corresponding evaluation method (cf. Fetterman and Wandersman, 2005).

Implications

The article aimed to explore how the concept of Ubuntu, a non-Western body of knowledge being promoted at the international level, can be utilised across cultural contexts. A case study of a rural development programme in China was selected for the study. Based on the findings and discussion above, the following implications are provided for readers in international communities.

First, the different options of stakeholders and their negotiation should be inevitable for indigenising any social work knowledge, even if the knowledge is introduced from a non-Western cultural background like Ubuntu. As reflected in the case study, the professional concerns of the two authors from the emic (local) and the etic (international) perspectives need not, and should not, be the same. This lack of conformity and even discursive patterns could trigger the need for vigilance and hesitation about indigenising knowledge, especially in non-Western contexts such as the cases reported. While admitting to this fact, the authors have found how and why the concept of Ubuntu could be useful for empowering social work practice in the specific context of the DHP.

The concept of Ubuntu highlights the significance of ‘collective responsibility’ rooted in its traditional cultures (Mayaka and Truell, 2021). It also reminds social work professionals to always uphold inclusive and anti-oppressive attitudes in practice. In the context of the DHP providing various social services for rural development in China, it has been revealed from the authors’ reflections that Ubuntu could be useful to support the work of community organisation. This concept offers a particularly unique understanding that can direct practitioners to use traditional resources for capacity building in local communities. This resonance between Ubuntu and the practice in rural China is certainly not universal. However, it should be enlightening for those decision makers and authorities willing to utilise Ubuntu to develop the rural areas with local heritage.

The authors do admit that some social work theories developed from the West (e.g. asset-based community development) could also have similar uses as the concept of Ubuntu in the case studied. Nonetheless, the emphasis of Ubuntu on traditional values and human relationships should be its distinctive feature for professional practice. This peculiar feature of Ubuntu is valuable for the consideration of indigenisation, particularly in either non-Western countries or regions full of heritage. Finally, like any imported knowledge, effective utilisation of Ubuntu must be incorporated with the local sociocultural and political contexts, as shown in the case of the DHP.

Conclusion

This article is an exploratory endeavour based on one particular cultural context with limited information for analysis and reflection. For example, the perspectives of the frontline practitioners and the service users in the DHP could also be considered for further study. The case study could extend to examine the utilisation of Ubuntu in an urban area and how it could advance an alliance between rural and urban areas proposed in the literature (Ku and Ma, 2015). The conceptualisation of spirituality could be further discussed by considering the diversified practices among the different ethnic groups in China (Ku and Wong, 2018). Nevertheless, it is a pioneering attempt to reveal how utilisation of Ubuntu can be further promoted under the philosophical orientation of critical realism – what works, for whom, in which circumstances (Nielsen and Miraglia, 2017). This study has also provided an example of how a local experience can connect with the interests of international readers for further discussion on the utilisation of Ubuntu across borders and cultural boundaries. The authors believe that this article can be a starting point for considering how a polythetic community of international social work can be further developed.