The Rural Governance Symbiotic System: Empowering Rural Communities through Social Work Stations

Against the backdrop of the comprehensive promotion of the rural revitalization strategy, Social Work Service Stations emerge as a new governance force capable of leveraging their professional expertise to enhance people’s livelihood security and foster community vitality. However, the development of rural social work stations within the realm of rural governance is a dynamic process involving interaction and cooperation among multiple stakeholders. This interplay of forces presents several challenges for rural social work stations, such as aligning with administrative systems while avoiding over-reliance, ensuring continuous professional development, addressing insufficient resident participation due to weak interest relationships, and overcoming difficulties in cultivating rural social workers. Consequently, the prospect of constructing a “rural governance symbiosis system” emerges, which entails fostering collaborative relationships among various stakeholders, maintaining a symbiotic mode of operation and creating symbiotic spaces. This transformative approach enables rural social work stations to shift from mere “embedding” into full “integration”.