Book review : Advances in social welfare in Hong Kong

Chan reviews the book Advances in social welfare in Hong Kong, edited by Daniel T. L. Shek, Lam Mong Chow, Au Chor Fai and J. J. Lee. Social welfare, usually taken to cover a wife scope of public services, is specifically confined within the premise of social work in this book. Papers reviewed are organised inder two parts: "Advances in Social Welfare Services" and "Advances in Social Welfare Research". All the papers are concerned with contemporary issues in social work rather than expanding the usual scope of social welfare to cover education, housing, etc. Nonetheless, with the impressive title and well thought out contents, this oversight seems trivial. The book is hoped to contribute to the emerging debate in socail work in Hong Kong in the 21st century, and to the advances in social work research conducted in recent years. All in all, the book represents a great contribution to indigenous knowledge in social work. It is a significant achievement in itself in incorporating the diverse opinions from both the academics and experienced social work practitioners. This reader strongly believe the practices, teaching and research are complementary and indeed inseparable in social work profession, and glad to see that the book has been edited in such a way. By reading this book, readers could get not only good understanding of the current and future trends of Hong Kong social services, they could also realise to a certain depth the challenges faced by social workers in work performance and in research.