Planejamento e gestão na responsabilidade social: desafios para o Serviço Social

Pós-graduação em Serviço Social - FCHS

O Serviço Social contracenando com a arte para desvelar a realidade

Pós-graduação em Serviço Social - FCHS

Transitando entre as políticas de assistência social e igualdade racial: produção e (re)produção da trama social dos negros

Pós-graduação em Serviço Social - FCHS

Transitando entre as políticas de assistência social e igualdade racial: produção e (re)produção da trama social dos negros

Pós-graduação em Serviço Social - FCHS

Choosing social-educational professions in post-soviet countries: international comparison

The motivation functions as the most important and decisive factor in choosing the profession Therefore it has an especially remarkable role in the further professional activity of a social-educational worker to raise one's qualification and progress as a specialist. The issue of the professional motivation for choosing social-educational work-studies is becoming increasingly important in post-soviet countries, where the institution of social worker is new and the social exclusion is so widely expressed. The issue of the professional aptitude of students is also important in various professional fields, however in social-educational professions it's importance is exceptional. The profession of social-educational work is based on competences that are constantly expanding and becoming more and more complex.

Resisting Postmodernity: Swedish social policy in the 1990s

The purpose of this paper is to introduce ideas that have emerged during the course of writing a book on Swedish welfare in the 1990s. The book is the result of many years of writing about two subjects: Swedish drug policy and the Swedish welfare state. The one very specialised, the other, more general. I first became interested in Swedish drug policy on a research visit to Örebro Län in 1986. A social worker showed me a copy of the county's drug policy programme and explained the significance of the 'restrictive line'. I have spent the years since that visit, trying to understand and explain the Swedish goal of a drug-free society (Gould 1988, 1994, 1996b). I only began to write about the welfare state in Sweden in the early 1990s, just as things were beginning to go wrong for the economy (Gould 1993a, 1993b, 1996a, 1999). For the last few years I have intended to write a book on the events covered by the period 1991-1998 - the years of a Bourgeois and a Social Democratic Government -which would bring the two halves of my work together. Material for this study has been accumulated over many years. A number of research visits have been made; large numbers of academics, politicians, civil servants, journalists, unemployed people, social workers and their clients have been interviewed; and extensive use has been made of academic, administrative and public libraries. Since September 1991 I have systematically collected articles from Dagens Nyheter about social services, social insurance, health care, employment, social issues and problems, the economy and politics. The journal Riksdag och Departement (Parliament and Ministry), which summarises a wide range of public documents, has been invaluable. Friends and informal contacts have also given me insights into the Swedish way of life. The new book is based upon all of these experiences. This paper will begin with a brief account of major global social and economic changes that have occurred in the last twenty years. This is intended to provide a background to the more recent changes that have occurred in Swedish society in the last decade. It will be suggested that the changes in Sweden, particularly in the field of welfare, have been less severe than elsewhere and that this is due to political, institutional and cultural resistance. The paper will conclude by arguing that Sweden, as an exemplar of an Apollonian modern society, has had much to fear from the Dionysian characteristics of postmodernity.

The Development of Social Work as a Speciality and the Profession in Estonia

For Estonia and its people social work is one of the vitally important fields that had to be built up from almost nothing since independence was regained in 1991. During Soviet times social work and social workers did not receive the necessary attention. Severe social problems were denied and kept hidden since according to official communist ideology, life in the Soviet Union was the best in the world and getting better all the time. Social workers did not receive specialised education and their functions were to be carried out by the workers of trade unions and the party, by teachers and by the workers of the personnel departments. In the 1990s big changes, having also an effect on social life, took place in the development of Estonian society. Concepts such as social work and social worker were rediscovered in Estonia. There are certain prerequisites for the success of any activity (including social work). One of the most important ones is being a professional, a worker with thorough preparation. Social work as an occupation requires specialised academic education, which is based on theoretical knowledge and practical skills that have been acquired through theoretical knowledge. Specialised knowledge is a foundation for attaining a specialised qualification. However, at the same time one has to keep in mind that social work as an occupation is constantly changing, there is no absolute knowledge - everything is relative, dynamic and changing (Tamm, 1998). The changing nature of the activity requires reflection by a social worker, who also has to be able to evaluate his/her work and its basis and learn from experiences. Academic specialised education implies also the development of a new professional identity and higher levels of competence. This underlines the necessity of specialised education.

Semiotic Analysis in the Study of Social Work

Research and professional practices have the joint aim of re-structuring the preconceived notions of reality. They both want to gain the understanding about social reality. Social workers use their professional competence in order to grasp the reality of their clients, while researchers’ pursuit is to open the secrecies of the research material. Development and research are now so intertwined and inherent in almost all professional practices that making distinctions between practising, developing and researching has become difficult and in many aspects irrelevant. Moving towards research-based practices is possible and it is easily applied within the framework of the qualitative research approach (Dominelli 2005, 235; Humphries 2005, 280). Social work can be understood as acts and speech acts crisscrossing between social workers and clients. When trying to catch the verbal and non-verbal hints of each others’ behaviour, the actors have to do a lot of interpretations in a more or less uncertain mental landscape. Our point of departure is the idea that the study of social work practices requires tools which effectively reveal the internal complexity of social work (see, for example, Adams & Dominelli & Payne 2005, 294 – 295). The boom of qualitative research methodologies in recent decades is associated with much profound the rupture in humanities, which is called the linguistic turn (Rorty 1967). The idea that language is not transparently mediating our perceptions and thoughts about reality, but on the contrary it constitutes it was new and even confusing to many social scientists. Nowadays we have got used to read research reports which have applied different branches of discursive analyses or narratologic or semiotic approaches. Although differences are sophisticated between those orientations they share the idea of the predominance of language. Despite the lively research work of today’s social work and the research-minded atmosphere of social work practice, semiotics has rarely applied in social work research. However, social work as a communicative practice concerns symbols, metaphors and all kinds of the representative structures of language. Those items are at the core of semiotics, the science of signs, and the science which examines people using signs in their mutual interaction and their endeavours to make the sense of the world they live in, their semiosis. When thinking of the practice of social work and doing the research of it, a number of interpretational levels ought to be passed before reaching the research phase in social work. First of all, social workers have to interpret their clients’ situations, which will be recorded in the files. In some very rare cases those past situations will be reflected in discussions or perhaps interviews or put under the scrutiny of some researcher in the future. Each and every new observation adds its own flavour to the mixture of meanings. Social workers have combined their observations with previous experience and professional knowledge, furthermore, the situation on hand also influences the reactions. In addition, the interpretations made by social workers over the course of their daily working routines are never limited to being part of the personal process of the social worker, but are also always inherently cultural. The work aiming at social change is defined by the presence of an initial situation, a specific goal, and the means and ways of achieving it, which are – or which should be – agreed upon by the social worker and the client in situation which is unique and at the same time socially-driven. Because of the inherent plot-based nature of social work, the practices related to it can be analysed as stories (see Dominelli 2005, 234), given, of course, that they are signifying and told by someone. The research of the practices is concentrating on impressions, perceptions, judgements, accounts, documents etc. All these multifarious elements can be scrutinized as textual corpora, but not whatever textual material. In semiotic analysis, the material studied is characterised as verbal or textual and loaded with meanings. We present a contribution of research methodology, semiotic analysis, which has to our mind at least implicitly references to the social work practices. Our examples of semiotic interpretation have been picked up from our dissertations (Laine 2005; Saurama 2002). The data are official documents from the archives of a child welfare agency and transcriptions of the interviews of shelter employees. These data can be defined as stories told by the social workers of what they have seen and felt. The official documents present only fragmentations and they are often written in passive form. (Saurama 2002, 70.) The interviews carried out in the shelters can be described as stories where the narrators are more familiar and known. The material is characterised by the interaction between the interviewer and interviewee. The levels of the story and the telling of the story become apparent when interviews or documents are examined with the use of semiotic tools. The roots of semiotic interpretation can be found in three different branches; the American pragmatism, Saussurean linguistics in Paris and the so called formalism in Moscow and Tartu; however in this paper we are engaged with the so called Parisian School of semiology which prominent figure was A. J. Greimas. The Finnish sociologists Pekka Sulkunen and Jukka Törrönen (1997a; 1997b) have further developed the ideas of Greimas in their studies on socio-semiotics, and we lean on their ideas. In semiotics social reality is conceived as a relationship between subjects, observations, and interpretations and it is seen mediated by natural language which is the most common sign system among human beings (Mounin 1985; de Saussure 2006; Sebeok 1986). Signification is an act of associating an abstract context (signified) to some physical instrument (signifier). These two elements together form the basic concept, the “sign”, which never constitutes any kind of meaning alone. The meaning will be comprised in a distinction process where signs are being related to other signs. In this chain of signs, the meaning becomes diverged from reality. (Greimas 1980, 28; Potter 1996, 70; de Saussure 2006, 46-48.) One interpretative tool is to think of speech as a surface under which deep structures – i.e. values and norms – exist (Greimas & Courtes 1982; Greimas 1987). To our mind semiotics is very much about playing with two different levels of text: the syntagmatic surface which is more or less faithful to the grammar, and the paradigmatic, semantic structure of values and norms hidden in the deeper meanings of interpretations. Semiotic analysis deals precisely with the level of meaning which exists under the surface, but the only way to reach those meanings is through the textual level, the written or spoken text. That is why the tools are needed. In our studies, we have used the semiotic square and the actant analysis. The former is based on the distinctions and the categorisations of meanings, and the latter on opening the plotting of narratives in order to reach the value structures.

Inclusão social no meio universitário: o discurso e a vivência cotidiana do estudante na EACH-USP

A educação, enquanto um direito fundamental do homem, vem passando por processo de reconhecimento no decorrer da formação da sociedade, sua importância no exercício da cidadania e na garantia de direitos, atualmente é indiscutível, bem como propiciar a diminuição das desigualdades sociais. A Universidade São Paulo, vem implantando programas de inclusão social para estudantes oriundos da escola pública e os seus principais programas são o Programa de Inclusão Social da USP (INCLUSP), que tem previsto desde bônus nas notas do vestibular até outros mecanismos de acréscimo de bônus no vestibular, bem como o Programa de Apoio à Permanência e Formação Estudantil (PAPFE), com seus auxílios financeiros aos estudantes carentes. Evidente que estas iniciativas são louváveis, porém na prática cotidiana como assistente social, nos deparamos com as lutas diárias destes estudantes, as dificuldades que encontram para cumprir com as exigências acadêmicas. Propusemos, com este estudo sistematizar, analisar e teorizar o discurso da universidade confrontando-o com os relatos dos estudantes que foram contemplados por estes programas. Constatamos que a permanência estudantil abrange não só os aspectos materiais, mas bem como os aspectos simbólicos, desse modo não é garantida a inclusão social do estudante apenas com o auxílio financeiro, pois a exclusão social intramuros na universidade permanece

A inserção profissional de assistentes sociais em instituições particulares de solidariedade social com resposta à senioridade: o caso do concelho da Covilhã

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar a inserção das Técnicas de Serviço Social na área da senioridade. Como se trata de um estudo de caso restringe-se concelho da Covilhã. Por isso, foi realizado um estudo que tinha quatro vertentes: as Assistentes Sociais, as Instituições Particulares de Solidariedade Social e o concelho da Covilhã. No sentido de tomar mais consistente a pesquisa, foi desenvolvido um guião de entrevista e aplicado a várias profissionais inseridas nas Ipss com três valências (ERPI, SAD e CD) no concelho. Posteriormente foram analisados os resultados e comparados com dados recolhidos dos Censos, do Instituto nacional de Estatística e Pordata. O tema é bastante atual e pertinente, devido ao panorama nacional. Por um lado o aumento da Taxas de desemprego e emigração, e por outro o envelhecimento da população e o aumento dos casos sociais. Concluiu-se que, para as entrevistadas a maior dificuldade no desempenho das suas funções é a excessiva carga horária, os problemas diários associados aos idosos (Dependência física e mental, o Luto, condições desumanas) no entanto revelaram alguma facilidade e rapidez na obtenção do primeiro emprego.

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"

Da voz que cala ao corpo que fala: o assédio moral no ambiente de trabalho como desafio para o serviço social

The changes ocurred in the world of capitalist labor, especially from the last decades of the 20th century, accentuated the process of manipulation and domination of the working class, materialized mainly through naturalization and / or trivialization of violence, conducted in the work environment. From this process, emerge the elements of bullying, that is, the embarrassing and humiliating practices which extend through time, degrading human race, and becoming fruitful object for study, debate and the intervention of the professionals of the Social Service area. Thus, we assume the perspective of analyzing the concepts and the work of social workers, whom work at people management area before the bullying in the workplace. We propose the following objectives: apprehend the settings of bullying, in the contemporary context of competitiveness and flexibility of work, as well as its implications for workers' health; characterize the background of this expression of violence at work in the municipality of Natal- RN; and analyze the powers and duties of the social worker in the process of prevention, identification and addressing of bullying in the context of work. This study consisted of a qualitative approach, based on the dialectical-critical method as soon as we adopt methodological procedures such as: theoretical knowledge, documental and field research, and performed using semi-structured interviews. The subjects of this research were nine (09) the Social Service professionals working in personnel management area, in five (5) institutions with legal and branches of different activities, located in Natal-RN. Even interviewed one (01) representative of the Public Ministry of Rio Grande do Norte Office (MPT-RN). The findings of this analysis indicate that bullying is a contemporary expression of "social question", which is presented as a demand for the Social-assistants – covered up and / or camuflage – under the guise of problems related to workers' health or mere conflicts of interpersonal relationships, that is, without any causal connection with the organization of work. The fear of losing job, not to be inserted in the labor market, and / or suffering reprisals, deepens the subject levels of the victims of bullying. Hence the importance of Social Workers are capable to understand the social reality, by preventing and combating the elements of bullying.

From labelling to social aid for immigrants in the 21st Century

Migration is as old as humanity, but since the 1990s migration flows in Western Europe have led to societies that are not just multicultural but so-called «super-diverse». As a result, Western towns now have very complex social structures, with amongst others large amounts of small immigrant communities that are in constant change. In this paper we argue that for social workers to be able to offer adequate professional help to non-native residents in town, they will need balanced view of ‘culture’ and of the role culture plays in social aid. Culture is never static, but is continually changing. By teaching social workers about how to look at cultural backgrounds of immigrant groups and about the limitations of then role that culture plays in communication, they will be better equipped to provide adequate aid and will contribute to making various groups grow towards each other and to avoid people thinking in terms of ‘out-group-homogeneity’. Nowadays, inclusion is a priority in social work that almost every social worker supports. Social workers should have an open attitude to allow them to approach every individual as a unique person. They will see the other person as the person they are, and not as a part of a specific cultural group. Knowledge about the others makes them see the cultural heterogeneity in every group. The social sector, though, must be aware not to fall into the trap of the ‘inclusion mania’! This will cause the social deprivation of a particular group to be forgotten. An inclusive policy requires an inclusive society. Otherwise, this could result in even more deprivation of other groups, already discriminated against. Emancipation of deprived people demands a certain target-group policymaking. Categorized aid will raise efficiency of working with immigrants and of acknowledging the cultural identity of the non-natives group. It will also create the possibility to work on fighting social deprivation, in which most immigrants can be found.

Utilizing ICT to prevent loneliness and social isolation of the elderly. A literature review

Ageing of the population is a worldwide phenomenon. Numerous ICT-based solutions have been developed for elderly care but mainly connected to the physiological and nursing aspects in services for the elderly. Social work is a profession that should pay attention to the comprehensive wellbeing and social needs of the elderly. Many people experience loneliness and depression in their old age, either as a result of living alone or due to a lack of close family ties and reduced connections with their culture of origin, which results in an inability to participate actively in community activities (Singh & Misra, 2009). Participation in society would enhance the quality of life. With the development of information technology, the use of technology in social work practice has risen dramatically. The aim of this literature review is to map out the state of the art of knowledge about the usage of ICT in elderly care and to figure out research-based knowledge about the usability of ICT for the prevention of loneliness and social isolation of elderly people. The data for the current research comes from the core collection of the Web of Science and the data searching was performed using Boolean? The searching resulted in 216 published English articles. After going through the topics and abstracts, 34 articles were selected for the data analysis that is based on a multi approach framework. The analysis of the research approach is categorized according to some aspects of using ICT by older adults from the adoption of ICT to the impact of usage, and the social services for them. This literature review focused on the function of communication by excluding the applications that mainly relate to physical nursing. The results show that the so-called ‘digital divide’ still exists, but the older adults have the willingness to learn and utilise ICT in daily life, especially for communication. The data shows that the usage of ICT can prevent the loneliness and social isolation of older adults, and they are eager for technical support in using ICT. The results of data analysis on theoretical frames and concepts show that this research field applies different theoretical frames from various scientific fields, while a social work approach is lacking. However, a synergic frame of applied theories will be suggested from the perspective of social work.

Mediation and the Social Work profession: particularly in the community context

In 2008, the European Union published its Directive on mediation in civil and commercial matters, offering general regulation of this conflict resolution system, its principles, and its objectives. Social workers have for some time defended their role as mediators, but this reality has changed and mediation appears to have taken shape as an independent profession due to existing regulation, its introduction to universities and the implementation of training courses. This article analyses the differences between the two professions: mediator and social worker. It also considers the mediation that is carried out in the community context. Community mediation is a perfect tool for achieving a changed understanding of public social services, seeking to encourage citizens to participate in and take responsibility for community life and thereby to become active citizens as envisaged by the 2012 Global Agenda for Social Work. However, mediation in this context has certain peculiarities, and at times confusion may arise between the figures of social worker and mediator.