Living in the Shadow of Market Competition: Career Commitment and Orders of Worth of Social Workers in Shanghai

Abstract

<p>Much of the cultural sociology literature has noted how actions are justified by citing available cultural resources, but few have examined how and why a particular order of worth is accepted while another is rejected at the individual level. In this paper, we address this research gap by examining how social workers in Shanghai understand their choice of a career that offers a low salary and lack of advancement opportunities while continuing to resist strong neoliberal discourses. Based on in-depth interviews with veteran social workers and social work students, the study reveals three micro-processes that reposition the orders of worth: (1) acknowledging the negative consequences of a competing worth; (2) applying an alternative worth as a solution to the problems of a dominant worth; and, (3) aligning with the dominant worth by showing compensatory outcomes of adopting the alternative worth. Social workers leverage humanism to deal with the “dark side” of market worth—a transformative strategy for self-preservation, a safeguard from the crises of modern life, and an adaptive and alternative pathway in a market society, which then sustains their commitment to the work. The study points out that those daily on-the-ground interactions are key to questioning and sustaining our individual orders of worth.</p>