Abstract
It was an opportunity and privilege by chance to come across this book while I was looking for literature in locating social work education in a context different from a Eurocentric perspective. To this end, the book illustrates the development of social work as a ‘program’ of higher education in the region contingent on the sociopolitical, spatial and economic atmosphere of the Southeast and East Asian region. In doing so, the volatility of democracies and governments in these countries in shaping social work education is explored. At the crux of its aim and objectives, the book argues that the problematization of social issues in the vortex of identities and nationalism has shaped social work education in the countries analysed. As a result, the arguments postulated widen the scope to differentiate the epistemological concerns of social work education and curriculum from those of dominant western and colonial origin.
Aimed at educators, scholars and educational policymakers, the book dwells on research-informed articulations of social work education. To associate the scope of social work theories and practice of the region with other regions in the world and Asia, it emphasizes ‘research in, theorizing from and knowledge for Asia’ (p. 4). The design of the book is formulated methodologically to include countries with social work programs where they distinguish between forms of government marked by a capitalist economy. Laying down the basic mission and vision in the introductory chapters, the book is organized into four parts. Each part examines the nature and scope of social work education in the classificatory context of ‘soft authoritarian government’, ‘liberal democracies’ ‘fragile democracies’ and ‘state socialism’.
Justice to the vision of the book is exemplary with thought-provoking case examples that enhance further enquiries. It serves as a relevant resource to deepen social work research and education in the Asian contexts. For instance, the development of social work programs as a profession of modern societies in Indonesia is associated with the Indigenous values and philosophies of Gotang Royang. This traditional practice is drawn in parallel with modern international concepts of global solidarity and the global village as source of social solidarity. This adds to the discourse of indigenization of social work education with concerns of internationalization and decolonization of social work education in different parts of the world. In the scope of the book, it indeed offers critical reflexivities to look again at the social work curriculum as a project in making it relevant to contemporary policy guidance and social service administration
The deliberate inclusion of selected nations in examining the subject of enquiry in the book is a limitation that excludes diversity of context in discussing the development of social work education in the regional canopy of Asia. To augment the arguments and objectives of the book, the instance of social work education in India along with other countries provides ample scope to galvanize discourse of contextual diversities, pedagogical and epistemological paradigms of an evolving social work education system. India has a historical legacy in founding the first social work institution of Asia in 1936. Having its foundation in the colonial period, social work education in India has evolved to engage the global influence of liberalization and capitalist economies in the buds of an independent democracy. To widen an encompassing discourse of the book, the plurality of an Asian identity with varying development trajectories and regimes itself calls for locating the ‘history’ of social work in continental geography and then percolate its historical underpinnings in the respective national context. Doing so would enhance interaction among Asian schools as envisaged in the project of the book to develop social work ‘knowledge for Asia’.
Social work is developing as a global profession with an international agenda of social development, social justice, and human rights (Palattiyil et al., 2019). In this transforming direction of the social work profession, this book vividly reminds us of the relevance of dialectical engagement of heterogeneous perspectives. Written in simple and lucid language, this book appeals to international readers and serves as a relevant literature in exploring the development of social work education in Asia.