Rural-to-urban migrants in China face numerous forms of social exclusion. This article argues that community-based approaches offer innovative ways with which to tackle the problems of social exclusion for rural-to-urban migrants, yet these approaches have been neglected. This article first provides an overview of the concept of social exclusion, as developed by Western European scholarship and policy discourse. Next, it examines the ways in which these concepts are relevant to the context of rural-to-urban migrants within China. Finally, this article conceptualizes the social exclusion paradigm from a community practice perspective and offers the implications of this paradigm for community-level interventions.

This article analyses agency collaboration to help vulnerable children and adolescents with complex social and psychological problems, examining the implementation of a formal collaboration model for these groups. This model, implemented in Västra Götaland, Sweden, involves five municipal agencies and five county council agencies in 49 different municipalities. Data were collected using two questionnaires sent to 355 lower managers and 424 professional representatives in the concerned organizations. The analysis demonstrates that there are differences in implementation results between the agencies, and that the differences are largely explainable by organizational self-interest and top management prioritization of collaboration model implementation. The main barriers to collaboration are factors modifiable by the agencies themselves, and perceived barriers decreased when the policy was working. The study suggests that managers of human service organizations must assume responsibility when implementing collaboratively, and that accountable professional and political leaders must rise above organizational interests to protect vulnerable citizens.

Created to address some of the limitations in China's rural retirement insurance policy, the Hutubi Model represents an innovative approach to asset building. A key feature of the model, the Hutubi loan programme, operated in Hutubi County, Xinjiang, China, from 1998 to 2010. It allowed farmers in Hutubi to borrow against their rural retirement accounts, taking loans for investment in farming and other priorities. This study examines the institutional incentives and structures that enabled the programme to help farmers build assets. We also discuss the programme's implications for the development of asset-based social policy in rural China and consider recent policy developments there. Among these is a new rural retirement social insurance programme.

This study utilizes life history analysis to explore the class reproduction process among migrant youths in Beijing, the capital city of China. Eight migrant youths were interviewed about their life histories using a life-line interview methodology. Results showed that these migrant youths could be classified into four groups based on their residential location and the duration of their residence in Beijing, each representing distinctive characteristics. Limited family educational background, poor quality of school education and unstable community environment were common experiences among the youths. In addition, the hukou system and other social policies that restricted education opportunities for these migrant youths contributed to the class reproduction process. Thus, the current education system, family background and social policy all adversely affect the opportunities of migrant youths to choose different life paths from their parents. This article then offers suggestions for changes in policy formulation and social services to improve social mobility for migrant youths.

Based on beliefs and values of professional social work, and the perspective from the social work discipline, this paper advocates that it is essential for Chinese social work educators to reflect on the current social structure and dominant ideologies which produce personal troubles and social problems as well as to reflect on approaches to solutions. Therefore, social work educators have to reflect firstly about how the education system, as an important component of social structure and dominant ideologies, affects thoughts and behaviours of people. In the education process, social work students become reflective and active social workers so that they will be able to assist clients to deal with personal troubles and to handle practical social problems.

Janet Seden, Sarah Matthews, Mick McCormick and Alun Morgan, Routledge, Abingdon, 2011, 226 pp., £22.99 (pbk), ISBN 978-0-415-55336-0 This collection of 26 papers comes from the research and teachi...

Individual and social are the two foci of the mission of change that drives the social work profession. This dual-focus provides not only a cultural mechanism by which the profession can negotiate its professional boundaries but the flexibility for the profession to adjust its focus when its social assignment changes. However, the uncritical pursuit of a full-fledged professional status within a neoliberal ideology is upsetting the balance of these two foci and may weaken the long term adaptability of the profession.

There is a saying in the West, "A rising tide lifts all boats" meaning that general economic growth will benefit all people in the economy.Five papers in this volume indicate the rising number of migrant families, older persons, grassroots NGOs, and social enterprises in China, and make us question if they are the benefactors, beneficiaries, or castaway of China's impressive economic growth in the past 30 years or more.The papers provide a social work perspective on subject matters that are often dominated by other disciplines.The sixth paper (Yan, Tsui, Chu, and Pak) addresses a broader issue on maintaining a dual focus in social work practice, which is of relevance, not only to the development of social work in China but other countries as well.In China, it seems more compelling to adopt a social development approach, given the enormous size of its population of 1.3 billion people and the small number of professionally trained social workers (annually about 10,000 graduate with a bachelor's degree in social work but few social work positions are available).However, it is important not to lose sight of the necessity for social work with individuals and families "keeping afloat" in fast swirling waters of modernization, industrialization, urbanization, This is the Pre-Published Version.