Abstract

Stream:
3. Social crises, social policies adjustment, social work & social professions: historical perspective and current Dynamics.

Paula de Sousa Doutoranda em Servio Social (UCP) Professora Assistente Universidade Catlica Portuguesa Campus Cames 4710-362 Braga
Tel: +351 932887480 E-mail address: paula.lousada@clix.pt

Jos Luis DAlmeida Social Work Ph.D (UP - Universidade do Porto) Professor Auxiliar UTAD-Universidade de Trs-os-Montes e Alto Douro 5000 660 - Vila Real Tel: +351 259302200 E-mail address: joseluis@utad.pt

SOCIAL WORK IN TIMES OF CRISIS: Whose side are we on? From a dominant executive roles to a direct change agent roles

In Portugal and the entire world, the neoliberal assault is fundamentally changing our economies, our welfare systems, our cities, and the profession of social work. An examination of changes to the Portuguese welfare state reveals the extent of measures such as cuts to services and funding, the trend towards privatization and market principles, and management practices that reduce social work practice to rationing scarce resources among a growing number of service users and strengthen the maintenance approaches (Dominelli, 2002:3) by the dominance of executive roles (Beckett, 2006:8). This paper is based on a research that reveals the dominant roles of social worker, focusing on the executive role as a distinctive role of social workers that serves a managerial agenda and policy decision-making. The executive roles are as follows: Almoner; Care manager; Responsability holder; Control agent; Co-ordinator; Service developer. It concludes that Social work has increasingly moved away from its commitments to direct work with individuals, families and communities and away from a role of direct change or advocacy role. Social workers may thus be required to fulfil an organisational function that conflicts with professional values and principles and with the reasons that provided their motivation to enter social work in the first place. We would like to explore the tension between a normative/ executive role and a political base of social work and, therefore, to address the question: How can social work contribute to challenge the dominant trends and map ways forward for a new engaged practice? (Jones et al., 2004).