O Serviço Residencial Terapêutico: cartografias de um híbrido no contexto da desinstitucionalização em saúde mental

This thesis seeks to uphold the idea that the therapeutic residential service, as hybrid device and recent process of deinstitutionalization in mental health, works as a problem producer while it also indicates challenges and potentialities in this process, the attention on mental health and on its own care production. To that end, we work with the prospect map with which we approach reality as the subjectivities production field which transformations and intensities are the major thought propellants. From this perspective, it was possible to produce three "purpose maps" from meetings with actors and groups involved with the TRS and the theoretical study carried out. On the first map we mapped the conditions of possibility of this device and its design in the midst of the process of institutionalization and health policies. We indicate on it the TRS configuration as a hybrid and we hassled its proposition as a means of "social rehabilitation" that can work as a social homogeneity mechanism. On a second map, we cartographied mental captures through images and ways historically built from madness presented in the biopolitical contemporary game and we indicated that the resistance to such catches should be built on a politic daily basis as important vectors of the institutionalization process in mental health. Finally, on a third map we mapped the carefulness produced in the TRS, by analyzing the transition psychiatric hospital - TRS and the caregivers´ team work. On this mapping, the care, for the weakness in the coresponsibility field, is reveled crossed by mental, disciplinary and normality elements, but it is also built in resistance born from links in the intersubjective field of the caring work. We conclude, then, that the TRS power and the deinstitutionalization process itself were in building and strengthening affective labor micro political networks of life and liberty producers

A militância em movimento: amizade e maquinação de modos de existência no MST

This study focuses on two issues, the process of subjectivity production and the exercise of friendship alongside political militancy in the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST). Friendship is here understood as the social practice with the potential to question certain modes of socially formed relationships as well as their becoming a political exercise. The political militancy phenomenon is problematized based on the subjectivity production perspective. The objective of the study was to construct acartography of the subjectivity production processes with political activists of the MST and to highlight the points in which the exercise of friendship enhances the appearance of singularity in the context of this militancy. The cartography is a research method that permits the identification of macro political, as well as micro political forces that interfere in a psychosocial context, such as the MST. The participants were members of an MST group that participated in a Pedagogy course coordinated by the Department of Education of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. The other participants were militants involved in political formation activities at the social base, as well as in the other levels of the MST in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Ceará, Minas Gerais and Paraná. The results are linked to the oscillate incorporation of the landless identity model that occurs as a group of disciplinary strategies are put in practice in the political formation activities with militants, as well as the ways of model evation are formed. This occurs to the extent that new demands and forms of invested desires beyond the land object are incorporated in the MST. Such singular processes happen in three areas of the political exercise of friendship articulation: the masses, where there is a possibility for the MST to construct a new social collectivity; gender relations, where the socially destined space for women is redimensionized and; sexual diversity, which provokes the MST to follow its potential in questioning the actual hegemonic living modes. It is therefore considered that the MST has a great opportunity to become an important mediator of contemporary social and political struggles

Participação de moradores no programa de coleta seletiva em três bairros de Natal/RN: explorando determinantes psico-socio-ambientais

The general purpose of the study was the analysis of residents' participation in the program of door-by-door collection of recyclable residuals in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. Even though the conception of such program by municipal managers was basically aimed at providing job opportunities and income for the collectors, the main objective of the investigation was to verify whether residents' participation could be attributed to their environmental commitment. Data collection involved three municipal districts and was performed in three stages, with complementary methodological strategies (observation, questionnaire, and interview), and characterized by selfevaluation, by residents, and hetero-evaluation, by collectors. Social, demographic, situational/contextual, and dispositional data were identified to help in the analysis of residents' adherence to the program. Separating and delivering recyclable residuals was the most frequent type of residents' participation, which demonstrates their low level of appropriation of decisions related to the program, taking part on it as passive agents. Two forms of motivation towards participating in the program were found: environmental and social. Despite the first being more frequent, it was associated to lack of environmental awareness related to the process, which may very well imply a mere reproduction of pro-environmental discourse. Motivation towards social issues was strongly connected to philanthropic forms of help. Knowledge was revealed as na important predictor for participation, as well as social networks, formed by neighbors, relatives and friends. Despite the social emphasis in the design of the program, it is possible to conclude that some residents also perceive its environmental benefits, possibly as consequence of a knowledge originated outside the program. Initiatives of environmental education should be promoted in order to minimize the allegation of lack of knowledge as justification for non-participation. Similarly, actions to put together municipal management and population would be welcome, to promote joint decisions towards sustainable styles of life

Práticas institucionais/discursivas acerca dos cuidados com os bebês prematuros e/ou de baixo peso: o programa canguru

The Kangaroo Program was implemented in Brazil in 2000 through the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde SUS) sustained with a humanized rethoric of health care assistance. This program adopts the skin-to-skin contact contributing to the mother-infant bond, breastfeeding and promoting security in mother s care. The users of SUS are encouraged to live in the maternity ward to follow the baby health improvement. However, it was verified in previous observations that mothers participation in the Kangaroo Program has been done through an imposed practice. Therefore, this study intended to understand the texts that permeate the kangaroo practice. This research was developed through two studies: 1) an historic exploration of motherhood concept and an analysis of how the motherhood is presented in the official document that orients the program; 2) an analysis of institutional dynamic of Kangaroo Program, emphasizing the study about the health workers everyday practice, the mothers view about their life in the maternity wards, and the attendance practice. It is highlighted that the relation between this two studies allowed the comprehension abouthow the official discourses can influence the health workers behaviors and how their viewpoint and position can shape the everyday work in a public health program. This research, supported by Institutional Ethnography, considers that people s practices and experiences are socially organized and shaped by broad social forces. The discourse method was used in the documental analysis and in the analysis of qualitative data from empiric research. The research showed that the kangaroo program has been an excellent way to save resources and to improve some baby s biologic and psychological aspects. However, this program has failed to consider the social, economic and cultural complexity of mothers and the structural limitation of the health care system. The official document uses the economic and medical approach, following the hegemonic biomedical model and the life style of the people that don t use the public health system. Consequently, the program has not been successful because it is planned without people participation. On the other hand, it was verified that although some professionals are committed with their work, the mainly does not consider mothers participation as an active process, using the institutional power as a social control to keep mothers uninformed about the possibility to leave the maternity wards. As a result, the research also showed that mothers perceive the program as mandatory and not as option that can improve pleasure moments. It is, therefore, necessary to consider the complex social determinants of health that can increase mothers participation in the Kangaroo Program. Bringing these issues into debate can be a reflective exercise on citizenship and governance, allowing spaces for the improvement of public health programs

A humanização no parto e no nascimento: os saberes e as práticas no contexto de uma maternidade pública brasileira

The practice of medicine related to the gestational processes tend to be organized according to the context and the place of work, being thus dependent of the conditions both social and economical, and of the physical structure and the functionality of the services. The high mortality rate in this process has diminished, since 1986, the study made by the World Health Organization (WHO) as to the technical aspects and the social inequalities that influence this situation in different geographical contexts. This culminated recommendations that proposed the reorientation of the dynamical practice of medicine, with a focus on the safety of maternities. Brazil adopted, in the year 2000, the suggestions of the OMS, emphasizing the humanization as the main reason for these actions. However, this discussion tends to not consider the problems caused by the social inequalities and the epidemiological and social conditionings that define the actions of the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde SUS). In this area, this research seeks to analyze the practices, cares taken, and the universal symbol that promotes and rewards the assistance to the birth of children by the SUS. Besides the analysis of the public documents that deal with this subject, an ethnographic study was developed in a maternity in Natal/RN, considered a model of humanization after receiving the Galba de Araújo prize in 2002. In this stage, the methodological strategies were observed, and the focus of the individual interviews with workers and users of this service. In the analysis of the data, it became evident that the different professional workers and women who gave birth, tend to show concern of the standards the delimit production and reproduction of the practice of medicine, as they favor the absence of a critical posture of the actions destined to the population. Besides this, if became evident that the institutional difficulties associated to the economical, cultural, and political problems also difficult the involvement and the reflection of the workers in favor of assisting changes of the process. There is also a utilization of a perspective prescriptive of humanization in the everyday life of the social workers, without reflection of its meaning. Some workers present, in their statements, a preoccupation with the social and economical aspects that affect the practice of medicine, and with the limitations of the humanization discourse that disarticulates the necessities of those involved in the process of formation, and soon tend to return to the discussion of humanization while a kind practice characterized by the minimization of the interventionist actions. Now the users of the system show themselves before the dynamic of the services, submitting themselves to what is offered while assistance, without questioning and/or reflecting about their usual shortages. Therefore, to think of changes in the know and do of the practice of medicine destined to the birth of children implies reflection on the quotidian production of these practices and of the social contexts that influence the process of assistance in the practice of medicine. Herein it would be possible to predict the appropriation, by different workers concerning their exasperations and necessities, making them active in the pursuit of their rights as citizens

Caracterização das intervenções em grupo na rede básica de saúde em Natal-RN

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

Princípios da construção enxuta no processo de planejamento de uma construtora de grande porte de Natal (RN)

Considered as one of the oldest activities done by men, the civil construction represents one of the most important sectors for the economic growth of a country, in spite of the low results of growth in the past few years and also in the current year. To make this industry grow, even with an unfavourable economic scenario, it is necessary to implement an effective planning in its activities. This is one of the most important concepts brought by the Lean Construction philosophy, which had its origin through the adaptation of the concepts established by the Toyota Production System (TPS) or Lean Production. By having as a scenario the city of Natal\RN, the main goal of this dissertation consists in investigating how the 11 principles of the lean construction influenced the schedule of a construction field that started to implement its lean concepts. As a methodology, it was used the case study of a big enterprise located in Natal (RN). During the execution of the method, documents related to the short-term, midterm and long-term planning were analysed , aiming to describe its planning process; it was also described the factors that caused the delays at the enterprises’ field ;in addition, a comparison was made between the results obtained at the case study and the ones presented at the literature; in the end, the actions were listed by the company, which had the purpose to solve the main causes of delays, verifying if they were linked to the lean construction principles. This research finds its reason of existence in the relevance of its theme at the nowadays reality of the construction industry, since the principles of the lean construction uphold the reduction of processes that are useless, diminishing wastes as well as costs in construction. The relevance is perceived for the academy, in terms of the possibility to discuss if the concepts established by the lean production are being adapted to the civil construction sector and how this adaptation is influencing at the buildings planning project. Economic importance, because with the reduction of the wastes and costs, the companies may reduce the building´s value into a more accessible value, even with the sector´s lower growth. And social significance, because lean construction gives a better participation of the labour at the planning activity. Among the main results, the high frequency of planning errors stands out, mainly the programming deviations and not the task programming, as well as the execution errors, low productivity and activities executed by the workers. Amongst the 11 principles of lean construction, only five were related with the 12 actions analysed by the author. From the 12 actions, four were completely cohesive to one or more from these five principles. Some improvement proposals were also highlighted and established by the research.

Produção de sentidos sobre a militância política de mulheres vinculadas ao MST/RN

Studies show that the theme of gender relations within the MST (Rural Landless Workers Movement) has incorporated some feminist guidelines discussions in the set of its speeches and daily practices. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the production of meanings about the political militancy of women linked to MST in Rio Grande do Norte. The specific objectives sought to identify the continuities and ruptures related to the women's role in the family of the militant women and to investigate the militant’s discursive positioning about their work. The study is configured as a qualitative research, which six women militants linked to the MST at the RN participated. These women occupy the coordination and leadership functions in the movement. We will use a semi-structured interview, initially guided by triggering questions that included, among others, the dimensions: political militancy, family and work as an access tool to the phenomenon. The reports were analyzed from an initial categorization, based on the guiding principles: militancy, family and work, and were based on theoretical perspective of studies about the production of meaning, discursive practices, social psychology and gender studies. The meanings of militancy point to: contribution, hope, recognition, transformation, awareness and fight. The results show that there is always a positivation speech of life, achievements of a formation and about a new place as a woman at stake. These results come justified by the collective investment of struggle, not only for the access to land, but for social rights achievements too. Finally, the MST stands with a discursive agency that contributes to produce in these women not only the way of political participation: but a way to be exercised with collective subjects and their rights.

Produção de sentidos sobre a militância política de mulheres vinculadas ao MST/RN

Studies show that the theme of gender relations within the MST (Rural Landless Workers Movement) has incorporated some feminist guidelines discussions in the set of its speeches and daily practices. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the production of meanings about the political militancy of women linked to MST in Rio Grande do Norte. The specific objectives sought to identify the continuities and ruptures related to the women's role in the family of the militant women and to investigate the militant’s discursive positioning about their work. The study is configured as a qualitative research, which six women militants linked to the MST at the RN participated. These women occupy the coordination and leadership functions in the movement. We will use a semi-structured interview, initially guided by triggering questions that included, among others, the dimensions: political militancy, family and work as an access tool to the phenomenon. The reports were analyzed from an initial categorization, based on the guiding principles: militancy, family and work, and were based on theoretical perspective of studies about the production of meaning, discursive practices, social psychology and gender studies. The meanings of militancy point to: contribution, hope, recognition, transformation, awareness and fight. The results show that there is always a positivation speech of life, achievements of a formation and about a new place as a woman at stake. These results come justified by the collective investment of struggle, not only for the access to land, but for social rights achievements too. Finally, the MST stands with a discursive agency that contributes to produce in these women not only the way of political participation: but a way to be exercised with collective subjects and their rights.

Motivação e satisfação à luz do modelo ASH: estudo de caso em indústria de alimentos

Neste estudo, foram examinadas as relações existentes entre a motivação e a satisfação do trabalhador no espaço laboral. O estudo empírico foi conduzido em uma única etapa, por meio da qual buscou-se conhecer as dimensões latentes identificadas e, a partir das dimensões validadas, buscou-se estabelecer relações com características motivacionais, como antecedentes, e satisfação pelo trabalho realizado, como conseqüência do atendimento das necessidades manifestadas pelo trabalhador. Foram entrevistados 38 (trinta e oito) funcionários da empresa Água Mineral Cristalina, incluindo-se os que ocupam cargos de chefia. Como instrumento de coleta de dados, foi utilizada parte do complexo da Auditoria do Sistema Humano ASH, criado por Quijano (1999), que se trata de um modelo de pesquisa na área de Psicologia Social, incluindo a Administração de Recursos Humanos, que analisa os processos psicológicos e psicossociais nas organizações. Para esta pesquisa, foram utilizados dois formulários sugeridos pelo autor citado, (anexos 01 e 02). O primeiro denomina-se condições para a motivação , com 15 (quinze) questões do tipo likert. O segundo, "trabalho bem feito e satisfação de necessidades", tem 22 (vinte e duas) questões, também do tipo likert. O instrumento foi respondido por colaboradores, independente da posição hierárquica, em aproximadamente 10 (dez) a 15 (quinze) minutos. A aplicação foi realizada diretamente pelo pesquisador nas unidades de produção e de administração da empresa. Por meio de modelagem de equações estruturais, foi estabelecido um modelo de relações causais entre as dimensões latentes relacionadas à motivação e o desempenho do empregado quando tem satisfeitas as suas necessidades. Quanto ao tratamento dos dados, este ocorreu de forma quantitativa. Quanto à análise, aconteceu após os dados terem sido tratados. Nesta pesquisa, os dados foram analisados por meio de estatísticas descritivas, atualizando-se os recursos de softwares específicos como Statistic ou SPSS Statistic Package for Social Sciences. Usou-se a técnica de Análise de Regressão, na qual foi utilizado o método STEPWISE que inclui na equação de explicação de uma variável dependente somente aquelas que auxiliam ou incrementam sua explicação. Como variáveis dependentes, foram utilizadas as variáveis do formulário "trabalho bem feito e satisfação de necessidades" e como variável independe as variáveis do questionário "condições para motivação". Sob o ponto de vista prático, este estudo mostrou que um determinado conjunto de características motivacionais influi positivamente na satisfação do trabalhador, que poderá realizar um trabalho bem feito; do lado teórico, a pesquisa verificou explicitamente a hipótese de que os aspectos motivacionais contribuem para que o empregado, sentindo-se satisfeito, desempenhe melhor as atribuições que lhe são conferidas

Terceiro setor em HIV/AIDS: mapeando o ativismo social na contemporaneidade

The struggle against AIDS is a kind of action in favor of life and the organized Brazilian civil society incorporated it in a meaningful dimension. This struggle matured the creation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and advanced with the discoveries about the disease. Since the very early 90 s, the consolidation of the partnership involving the movement anti-aids with State came up with a dilemma for the entities of civil society: are they just executors of governmental policies or do they take up the role of effective demands concerning public policies? Since then, activism against aids started to stand for execution of projects and one considers that the institutional way of anti-aids work has problems because it constructs a basic strategy to take off the political aspect of the third sector. The NGOs/aids consolidate the reconfiguration of capital and get far from street activities. This is important to be studied because the relationship between society and aids, contemporarily, can prevent them from accomplishing their agenda referring to political mobilization and collective resistance. This research started to be carried after some visits, previously arranged, to an institutional life support group called Grupo de Apoio à Vida-GAV, in Campina Grande. A semi-structured interview was applied to 31 users and to 6 technicians of the entity mentioned. One aimed at investigating the activist anti-aids practice, identifying the conceptions of activism and knowing how social actors assess those practices. Preliminary results indicate that one of the conceptions on activism among the interviewees refers to the execution of projects through partnership of NGOs and supporting institutions, governmental or non-governmental. Although this new conception on activism consolidates a non-political aspect, there are other ways of executing projects and participating actively, according to some users, such as: meetings, lectures and other sorts of events promoted by the group, which are also legitimate actions representing anti-aids activism at the present context

As relações da tríplice hélice no setor da carcinicultura do Rio Grande do Norte: uma análise a partir das abordagens da imersão social e da dependência de recursos

This work consists in a study of the Shrimp Industry in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, whose central issue relates to the understanding of how the Triple Helix (University, Government and the productive sector) interrelationship limits or expands the industry s innovation process. The study aims to understand how the Triple Helix relationship interferes in the innovation process of shrimp in Rio Grande do Norte. As the knowledge becomes the resource key for production methods, the generation of new technologies, new products and processes which demands joint and integrated action of the institutions comprising the Triple Helix: University, Government and productive sector, which possess the essential resources to innovate the process and can be maximized from cooperative relationships between the referred Institutions. Thus, in this work, it was sharply used the pioneering studies of Sabato and Botana (1968) regarding the cooperation relationship between the scientific-technological sphere, the governmental and the productive base, and studies on the Triple Helix approach, proposed by Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (2000), in which the university has a key role in the process of technological and innovative development of countries and regions, and under which it is assigned to the very University - the character of the entrepreneurial institution, through the concept of entrepreneurial University. Aiming to overcome the criticism of Cooke (2005), regarding the limitations of the Triple Helix approach, in this study it was used - as analytical perspectives - the perspective of social immersion (Granovetter, 1985, 2005) and the theory of resources dependence (PFEFFER; SALANCIK, 1978). The analytical perspectives presented in here, despite of the different assumptions, are essential to eliminate the bias that one only approach can lead (ASTLEY; VAN DE VEM; 2007). The authors arguments focus on the fact that the integration is possible if the researcher acknowledged that different perspectives may have different descriptions of the same phenomenon. As a research strategy, this study is characterized as a study case, along with the proposed objectives - the qualitative method was used as an approach and, depending on the gathering of the sector s historical, a sectional longitudinal view approach was applied (VIEIRA, 2004). The primary and secondary data were used in order to understand the sector s evolutionary process and its inter-institutional relations - regarding the shrimp culture in Rio Grande do Norte - to promote the development, as the content was used for the technical analysis (BARDIN, 1977). The approach of social immersion and resources addiction dependence made it possible to understand that relationships are established within and between each sphere (university, government and productive sector) characterizing a network of low density relationships and strongly internal and external dependence. Based on the speech of Etzkowitz and Mello (2006), a successful Triple Helix strategy of innovation requires not only the involvement and commitment of the parts, within the institutional sphere and among them, but also the development of mechanisms to coordinate the multiple and complex interactions and interfaces, focusing on promoting both environment and context for innovation and learning; it can be acknowledge from study results that the shrimp in the State of the RN, although there are several institutional mechanisms to promote greater integration and technological development, has been presented disjointed - both internally and between the spheres - and under no legitimate practice when facing the innovational promotion and integration institutions. Due to those factors, the central institutions of the network are crucial to the promotion of innovations, spreading through their direct contacts the importance factor of the sustainable competitive activity in the world market and on the national level. However, it may be concluded, from the data, that the Triple Helix relations are interfering in a negative way on what concerns the promotion of innovations in the shrimp industry in RN

O ambiente de trabalho no setor bancário e o bem-estar

Wich the big transformations at the world of labor, thus as the appearing of the negatives psicologicals consequencies? Publications in books and articles about the health of the workers have been seen in the last 40 years, pointing at the increase of occupational ills, increase of the absenteeism, reach the redation between the labor and the family. With the appearing of the neoliberal sistem, changed all the net of relations, thus as the temporary labor contract, the flexibility at the work timetable, and others, that privilege the capitalism, in detriment of the worker health. It was given emphasis to the banking worker, in time that the banks and the banking agencies were one of the departaments that more suffered the impact of the productive restructuring at the last years. 200 bank clerks shared the search, in that 41,9% was female and 58,1% was male, 60,9% presenting a civil state married, following of 28,4% of single. The participants answered the following instruments: Scale of Positives and Negative Kindness, General Health Questionaire GHQ 12, Scale of Organization, Conditions and Labor Relations, Scale of Desire (own authorship), Scale about economic situation and a social-demographic record car. With the objective of trying the instruments of measure, it was checking the psychometric parameter of the search scales. We could verify that it has been more positive than negative ones for the mental health, but it was found some kind of depression and unsatisfied with their lives in some pieces of the sample. We can finally say that the work place has an impact at the mental health of the bank clerks. So, some interventions actions to promote the worker health could be essential

Serviço Social e terceiro setor: considerações sobre as atuais relações e condições de trabalho para o Assistente Social em Natal

The present study analyses the actual relations and work conditions found in the third sector in Natal city, in the context of productive restoration and increasingly retraction from the State in providing Social Service before the new approach that has been destined to the social issue. The study talks about the work of the social worker when fighting the different expressions the social issue has, such as social service provision as a way of teamwork associated to work relations and conditions, to accessible resources and quality control management. These are elements that affect and interfere in the accomplishment and in the work of the social worker itself. The State s improvement, according to neoliberal-political precepts and increasingly retraction from the public investment in the areas of social concern (health, social welfare, assistance) and in the wage and employment policy, besides expanding the partnership with the public and private areas, in search for social services with quality, it has diversified the structures of the professional work with the growth of the so called third sector institutions. However, the absorption of the social workers by the third sector groups in general, has as major features the impoverishment of work relations, the maintenance of an unequal salary model, pointing out the deadline contracts and/or single tasks that generate work instability. The research debates, with a critical view and full perspective, over the conception of the third sector, interpreted as an action that expresses functions and values, treated as a real phenomenon generated from the restoration of the capital based on neoliberal principles. This study aims for responding what the established work relations are and under what work conditions the social worker has been fitting in the third sector and how such a reality echoes in the current work conditions for a social work in the city of Natal, before this new model of state intervention that transfers part of the social service provision to distinctive divisions of society, among them the so called third sector. The research results have shown that like the other workers the social worker passes through the same crises, dilemmas, advances and challenges that occur in the world of employment and which are expressed in the drop of salary average in the growth of contemporary contracts, unemployment, and in the ever more selective requirements to one be included in the social spaces, where the professional work is done, having as a result a greater impoverishment of work relations and conditions as well as more vulnerability as a salaried occupation

Condições de trabalho e terceiro setor: implicações contemporâneas para o serviço social

In the contemporaneity, due to the implementation of the neoliberal project in which one verifies the withdrawal of the State in regard to the development of social policies, it is observed a new way of responding to the multifaceted expressions of the social issue, which is the emergence and expansion of a supposed "third sector" in society. Thus, the productive restructuring process has led to the deterioration of labor relations, as well as a super exploration of human labor power, also triggering structural unemployment. By being delineated in classist interests, the emergence of the "third sector" brings contradictory aspects to the society, one of these being the very concept of "third sector", more ideological than real. By seeking to answer the expressions of the social issue, demands the intervention of social workers in the institutions that "composes it". This way, arises the interest in researching what are the current conditions and labor relations of the social workers who work in the institutions of the "third sector" in Mossoró-RN. Therefore, this study is constituted by a survey for the conclusion of a Master's degree in Social Service at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. Therefore, it was listed out as general objective to identify and analyze the conditions and labor relations of the social workers entered in the institutions of the "third sector" in Mossoró-RN. And by specific objectives: to map the institutions that are part of the "third sector" in the city of Mossoró, which have social workers on its professional staff, in order to profile the same; and, analyze the main challenges presented to the work of the social worker in these institutions. We used the bibliographic and documental research to enlighten the knowledge of the topic approached and the development of the field research, in which for the analysis of the data obtained, through field research, it was used the quantitative and qualitative approach. The search results confirmed that half of the institutions was identified as philanthropics, and most of them are funded by the federal government and that such organizations develop activities in several areas, particularly health and welfare. Concerning the conditions and labor relations, was highlighted the fact that half of the professionals insert themselves within the institutions by appointment; regarding the salary, 57.1% of employees receive between 3 and 4 minimum wages, which is considered relatively low. Was satisfactory the analysis related to the labor rights, because almost all offer a formal contract, which ensures, in great measure, the effectuation of such rights. Now with regard to the workload, 5 of 6 institutions implemented the Law Nº. 12.317/2010 ensuring 30 hours a week for social workers. However, it were cited many challenges relating the reality of the "third sector" to the conditions and labor relations, among them stands out: the delay of salary and non-salary adjustment; the realization of activities that do not relate to professionals, functions and duties; the development of many activities by a single professional. Two important data are the not incentive to a postgraduate and the charging of the fulfillment of the goals for the professional productivity. Here, it is worth to reflect that, although this study presents elements that provide to identify some aspects of labor relations and conditions of social workers in the "third sector" in Mossoró- RN, as well as some challenges that permeate this space of professional insertion, is meant that there is much to be unveiled, and other studies can later do so in an attempt to a better understanding of the complexity of processes that permeate the "third sector"