歐美社會福利的歷史發展從紀元前到目前的專業化，可以分為五個階段。可以看出專業化其實也是隨著時代的變遷而不斷的變化。台灣的社會福利發展則可從中國傳統文化與歷代連綿不斷的災荒中看出她的端倪。新的世紀又在科技發展中的電子時代、網路時代、又進入了奈米時代，對每個人的自我認同、社會行為、以及經濟行為、人際關係等都產生重大的影響。社會工作應該順著時代潮流的發展而有適度的變革。變革之途是否就是所謂的本土化？不無疑義。本文提出本土化固然可從社工教學本土化、社工原則的文化考量、本土社工派別化等方向著手，但若要徹底的社工本土化，或從典範變遷的過程來進行本土化時，在可見的未來中並不是時候。

The development of social work profession was tightly associated with the trend of history. The characteristic of social work accordingly is based on human nature as well as the social needs. Therefore, the social work profession, historically speaking, comes from dealing with poverty in the ancient time to solving the various social problems in this modern era. In China, the social welfare programs mainly come from dealing with the natural disaster. The development of Social Work in Taiwan, however, in professional aspect, was affected by both US and Britain, in the cultural aspect, was rooted in Chinese tradition. Therefore, localization always considered as the future trend for the development of social work in Taiwan. However, this article indicates that globalization will be more appropriate than localization for the future development especially when the characteristics of social work and the paradigm revolution are concerned.