Abstract: Since the restoration and reconstruction of social work in the past 30 years, the primary problem that plagues the academic and practical circles has always been how to obtain survival and development. Embedded development and internal transformation have become two mainstream views. The former points out from the perspective of professional social work that (professional) social work must be embedded in the original social service system in order to obtain development, while native social work is in a relatively subordinate status. The latter believes that it is sufficient to promote the transformation of the original social service system in a better direction, and professional social work is only a supplement. The above two views actually create a dichotomous social work discourse, which is not conducive to the integrated development of two different forms of social work in practice. On the basis of reflective understanding of the relevant literature and practice about embedded development of social work, this paper points out that the previous concept of embedded social work is only an expedient strategy, but does not touch upon the essence and core of social work. Therefore, combined with the historical orientation and major contradictions in the new era, this paper proposes that the transition from embedding system to embedding life is the choice of the era and proper meaning of the development of social work, since the latter tries to tentatively draw a picture of the development of social work from three aspects: finding the value implications of "embedding" through returning to the social property of embedding; focusing on the embedded nature of "subjectivity" to focus on "people" themselves; and shaping a better life as the fundamental task and proposition of the new era.

Key words: reflections on embedment, embedding system, embedding life, new era, people-centered