ABSTRACT
The selection of field practicums in the community development (CD) field and macro practice more broadly is increasingly rare among Hong Kong social work students. This chapter examines the historical and structural tensions shaping macro practice in the region, highlighting CD as a key welfare institution of social work training and practice. The first section traces the historical interlinkages among social work, CD and field education. Social work has gained an increasingly professionalized status despite standalone CD services becoming slashed. This is partially explained by the advancement of remedial practice approaches and the orchestrated decline of macro practice. We share statistics on social work students choosing CD placements at our university to highlight the regional trend of diminished education and employment opportunities in this area. Our analysis shows how social action and advocacy are considered to be discouraged, whilst financial dependence upon existing lump sum grants through the government subvention system makes it unfavourable to advocate system change. This context delimits possibilities for social work’s ‘signature pedagogy’ of field education, and the uneven levels of practice where students can learn to think, perform and practice ethically and with integrity. Given the precariousness of CD services, we suggest that a ‘macro lens’ in social work must be reclaimed through field education. Social work education—with its currently predominant remedial focus—should be ‘re-casted’ to actualize the ideals of multilevel practice, preparing social work students to address the multidimensional complexity of Hong Kong’s various social issues.
