Possibilities for new social work professional resistance in Chile: times of social change?
In the current unscrupulous neoliberal climate, social workers are increasingly confronted with ethical and political tensions that clash with the profession’s commitments to human rights and social justice. However, despite neoliberalism’s global reach, the scholarship on social work professional resistance has been largely limited to the Global North. Taking into consideration this absence in the literature, this article seeks to explore the possibilities for professional resistance in the Global South, specifically, in Chile, a country in which neoliberalism was forcefully imposed and that has experienced an exponential growth in social movements over the past two decades. The following article explores the structural and material conditions that have historically shaped social work resistances, arguing that the current social and political climate, specifically, the constitutional process under way, presents a space from which new resistances are possible and necessary in order to challenge neoliberal hegemony.
-
Abramovitz, M. (2015) Theorizing the neoliberal welfare state for social work, in M. Gray, J. Midgley and S. Webb (eds) The Sage Handbook of Social Work, Los Angeles: Sage, pp 33–50.
-
Alayon, N. (2005) Trabajo Social Latinoamericano: A 40 Años de la Reconceptualización, Buenos Aires, Argentina: Espacio.
-
Arendt, H. (1998) Los Origenes del Totalitarismo, Madrid: Taurus.
-
Aylwin, N., Forttes, A. and Matus, T. (2004) La Reinvención de la Memoria: Indagación Sobre el Proceso de Profesionalización del Trabajo Social Chileno, Santiago, Chile: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
-
Baines, D. (2006) ‘If You Could Change One Thing’: Social Service Workers and Restructuring, Australian Social Work, 59(1): 20–34, doi: 10.1080/03124070500449754.
-
Baines, D. (2008) Race, resistance, and restructuring: emerging skills in the new social services, Social Work, 53(2): 123–31. doi: 10.1093/sw/53.2.123
-
Baines, D. (2011) Resistance as emotional work: the Australian and Canadian Non-profit social services, Industrial Relations Journal, 42(2): 139–56. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2338.2011.00616.x
-
Banks, S. (2011) Ethics in an age of austerity: social work and the evolving public management, Journal of Social Intervention: Theory and Practice, 20(2): 5–23. doi: 10.18352/jsi.260
-
Barnes, M. and Prior, D. (2009) Subversive citizens. Power, agency and resistance in public services. Bristol: The Policy Press.
-
Bellei, C., Cabalín, C. and Orellana, V. (2014) The 2011 Chilean student movement against neoliberal educational policies, Studies in Higher Education, 39(3): 426–40. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2014.896179
-
Bossert, T. and Villalobos, P. (2020) Health Reform in the Midst of a Social and Political Crisis in Chile, 2019–2020, Health Systems & Reform, 6: 1, doi: 10.1080/23288604.2020.1789031.
-
Carey, M. and Foster, V. (2011) Introducing ‘deviant’ social work: contextualizing the limits of radical social work whilst understanding (fragmented) resistance within the social work labour process, British Journal of Social Work, 41(3): 576–93. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcq148
-
Cheung, C.C. and Ngai, S.S.Y. (2009) Surviving hegemony through resistance and identity articulation among outreaching social workers, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 26(1): 15–37. doi: 10.1007/s10560-008-0146-9
-
Chi-Leung, L. and Hoi-Kin, T. (2013) Adversity and resistance: neoliberal social services and social work in Hong Kong, Critical and Radical Social Work, 1(2): 267–71. doi: 10.1332/204986013X673335
-
Cortés, A. (2019) La rebelión social como imaginación sociológica colectiva, Cuadernos de Teoría Social, 5(10): 77–93.
-
Courtney, J. and Hickey, R. (2016) Street‐level advocates: developmental service workers confront austerity in Ontario, Labour/Le Travail, 77(1): 73–92. doi: 10.1353/llt.2016.0036
-
Cunill-Grau, N., Fernández, M. and Thezá Manríquez, M. (2013) The issue of intersectoral collaboration and the comprehensiveness of the social policies: lessons from the case of the childhood protection system in Chile, Polis (Santiago), 12(36): 289–314. doi: 10.4067/S0718-65682013000300013.
-
De Fina Gonzalez, D. and Figueroa Vidal, F. (2019) Nuevos ‘campos de acción política’ feminista: una mirada a las recientes movilizaciones en Chile, Revista Punto Género, 11: 51–72.
-
Del Villar Tagle, M.S. (2018) Las Asistentes Sociales de la Vicarial de la Solidaridad: Una Historia Profesional (1973–1983), Santiago, Chile: Ediciones Universidad Alberto Hurtado.
-
Duarte Hidalgo, C.M. (2013) Procesos de construcción del trabajo social en Chile. De historia, feminización, feminismos y ciencias, Eleuthera, 8: 253–70.
-
Feldman, G. (2021) Disruptive social work: forms, possibilities and tensions, British Journal of Social Work, bcab045, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab045.
-
Ferguson, I. and Lavalette, M. (2006). Globalization and global justice: Towards a social work of resistance. International Social Work, 49(3): 309–18. doi: 10.1177/0020872806063401
-
Fine, M. and Teram, E. (2013) Overt and covert ways of responding to moral injustices in social work practice: heroes and Mild-mannered social work bipeds, British Journal of Social Work, 43(7): 1312–29. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcs056
-
Gárate, M. (2012) La revolución capitalista de Chile (1973–2003). Santiago de Chile: Universidad Alberto Hurtado.
-
Garreton, M.A. (2012) Neoliberalismo Corregido y Progresismo Limitado: Los Gobiernos de la Concertación en Chile, 1990–2010, Santiago, Chile: Editorial Arcis CLACSO coediciones.
-
Garreton, M.A. (2016) La gran ruptura: Institucionalidad politica y actors sociales en el Chile del siglo XXI. Santiago, Chile: LOM ediciones.
-
Garrett, P.M. (2021) Dissenting Social Work: Critical Theory, Resistance and Pandemic, New York: Routledge.
-
Green, L.C. (2006) Pariah profession, debased discipline? An analysis of social work’s low academic status and the possibilities for change, Social Work Education, 25(3): 245–64. doi: 10.1080/02615470600565152
-
Greenslade, L., McAuliffe, D. and Chenoweth, L. (2015) Social workers’ experiences of covert workplace activism, Australian Social Work, 68(4): 422–37. doi: 10.1080/0312407X.2014.940360
-
Hall, P. and Lamont, M. (2013) Social Resilience in the Neoliberal Era, New York: Cambridge.
-
Harvey, D. (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Illanes, M.A. (2007) Cuerpo y Sangre de la Política: La Construcción Histórica de las Visitadoras Sociales (1887–1940), Santiago, Chile: LOM Editors.
-
Ioakimidis, V., Martínez-Herrero, M., Yanarda, U., Farrugia, C. and Teloni, D. (2013) Austerity and social work in Europe: listening to the voices of resistance, Critical and Radical Social Work, 1(2): 253–61. doi: 10.1332/204986013X673317
-
James, I. and Julian, R. (2020) Policy implementation and refugee settlement: the perceptions and experiences of Street-level bureaucrats in Launceston, Tasmania, Journal of Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783320931585.
-
Jamrozik, A. and Nocella, L. (1998) The Sociology of Social Problems, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-
Juhila, K., Raitakari, S. and Hall, C. (2017) Responsibilisation at the Margins of Welfare Services, New York: Routledge.
-
Kim, S. (2015) Street-level struggles against marketisation: A case study of nonprofits in a South Korean workfare partnership programme. Critical Social Policy, 35(2): 207–27. doi: 10.1177/0261018314563038
-
Madariaga, A. (2020) Neoliberal resilience: Lessons in democracy and development from Latin America and Eastern Europe. Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press.
-
Martínez-Herrrero, I., Cruz Santos, C. and Ioakimidis, V. (2014) Reconceptualizando el trabajo social en Europa del sur: el retorno de la política ‘en tiempos de malestares’, Revista de Servicios Sociales y Política Social, 106: 11–24.
-
Matus, T. (2018) Punto de Fuga, Buenos Aires: Espacio Editorial.
-
Morales, C. (2021) Colectivos de Trabajo Social en Chile: Una Posibilidad de Resistencia Antes el Neoliberalismo, unpublished undergraduate thesis, Chile: Universidad de Chile.
-
Moulian, T. (1997) Chile Actual. Anatomía de un Mito, Santiago: LOM Ediciones.
-
Mumby, D., Thomas, R., Marti, I. and Seidl, D. (2017) Resistance redux, Organization Studies, 38(9): 1157–83. doi: 10.1177/0170840617717554
-
Muñoz, G. (2018) Contra la exclusión: lugar de enunciación e intervención social en la primera línea. Polis, Revista Latinoamericana, 49: 259–78.
-
Muñoz-Arce, G. (2019) The neoliberal turn in Chilean social work: frontline struggles against individualism and fragmentation, European Journal of Social Work, 22(2): 289–300.
-
Muñoz-Arce, G. and Rubilar, G. (2020) Social work research in Chile: tensions and challenges under the ‘knowledge economy’ and managerialist research agendas, British Journal of Social Work, bcaa132, doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcaa132.
-
Pollack, S. and Rossiter, A. (2010) Neoliberalism and the entrepreneurial subject: implications for feminism and social work, Canadian Social Work Review, 27(2): 155–69.
-
Pors, A. and Schou, J. (2020) Street-level morality at the digital frontlines: an ethnographic study of moral mediation in welfare work, Administrative Theory & Praxis, doi: 10.1080/10841806.2020.1782137.
-
Prior, D. and Barnes, M. (2011) Subverting social policy on the front line: agencies of resistance in the delivery of services, Social Policy and Administration, 45(3): 264–79. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2011.00768.x
-
Reininger, T. and Castro-Serrano, B. (2020) Poverty and human capital in Chile: the processes of subjectivation in conditional cash transfer programs, Critical Social Policy, https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018320929644.
-
Reisch, M. and Garvin, C. (2016) Social Work and Social Justice. Concepts, Challenges and Strategies, New York: Oxford.
-
Rodríguez, J.P. (2020) Resisting Neoliberal Capitalism in Chile. The Possibility of Social Critique, Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
-
Rojas, C. (2019) Ayudar a Los Pobres: Etnografía del Estado Social y Las Practicas de Asistencia, Santiago, Chile: UAH Ediciones.
-
Rolando, R., Salamanca, J. and Aliaga, M. (2010) Evolución de la Matrícula Educación Superior de Chile 1990–2009, Working Paper No. 11, Santiago: Ministry of Education.
-
Rozas, J. and Maillet, A. (2019) Entre marchas, plebiscitos e iniciativas de ley: la innovación en el repertorio de estrategias del movimiento No Más AFP en Chile (2014–2018), Izquierdas, 48: 1–22. doi: 10.4067/S0718-50492019000400001
-
Rubilar, D.G., Galaz, V.C. and LaBrenz, C.A. (2020) Human rights in Chilean social work: lessons from Chile to prepare social work students for human rights practice, Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-020-00156-8.
-
Ruiz, C. and Boccardo, G. (2020) Los Chilenos Bajo el Neoliberalismo: Clases y Conflicto Social, Santiago, Chile: Nodo XXI.
-
Saracostti, M., Grau, O., Villalobos, C., Rubilar, G., Cisternas, N. and Caro, P. (2014) Historia del Trabajo social en Chile, in T. Fernández and R. de Lorenzo (eds) Trabajo Social: Una Historia Global, Madrid: McGraw Hill, pp 67–94.
-
Saravia, F. (2015) La formación de los trabajadores sociales en Chile: ¿un asunto de oferta y demanda?, Cuadernos de Trabajo Social, 28(1): 67–79.
-
Saravia, F. and Saavedra, J. (2018) Desigualdades generacionales, de genero y etnia entre trabajadores sociales chilenos, Revista Katalisis, 21(3): 554–63.
-
Schram, S. and Silverman, B. (2012) The end of social work: neoliberalizing social policy implementation, Critical Policy Studies, 6(2): 128–45, doi: 10.1080/19460171.2012.689734.
-
Sepulveda, A. (2016) Algunas reflexiones acerca del ejercicio profesional del trabajo social durante la dictadura militar, in P. Vidal (ed) Trabajo Social en Chile. Un Siglo de Trayectoria, Santiago, Chile: RIL, pp 141–54.
-
Singh, G. and Cowden, S. (2009) The social worker as intellectual, European Journal of Social Work, 12(4): 479–93. doi: 10.1080/13691450902840689
-
Somma, N. (2012) The Chilean Student Movement of 2011–2012: Challenging the Marketization of Education. Interface, 4(2): 296–309.
-
Somma, N., Bargstead, M., Disi, R. and Medel, R. (2020) No water in the oasis: the Chilean spring of 2019–2020, Social Movement Studies, 20(4): 495–502, doi: 10.1080/14742837.2020.1727737.
-
Streir, R. (2019) Resisting neoliberal social work fragmentation: the wall to wall alliance, Social Work, 64(4): 339–45. doi: 10.1093/sw/swz036
-
Streir, R. and Bershtling, O. (2016) Professional resistance in social work: counterpractice assemblages, Social Work, 61(2): 111–18. doi: 10.1093/sw/sww010
-
Tummers, L.G. (2017) Bureaucracy and policy alienation, in A. Farazmand (ed) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance, 3rd edn, New York: Springer Nature.
-
Turtiainen, J., Anttila, E. and Väänänen, A. (2020) Social work, emotion management and the transformation of the welfare state, Journal of Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017320973586.
-
Villalobos, C. (2021) Una continuidad discontinua. Análisis retrospectivo del 18-O a la luz del ciclo de protestas juveniles en el campo educativo, in S. Alé, K. Duarte and D. Miranda (eds) Saltar el Torniquete. Reflexiones Desde Las Juventudes de Octubre, Santiago, Chile: Fondo de Cultura Económica, pp 41–7.
-
Villalobos, C. and Ortiz-Inostroza, C. (2019) Continuidades y rupturas de la protesta universitaria en el Chile Post-dictadura, Revista Temas Sociológicos, 24(1): 89–120.
-
Vivero-Arriagada, L. (2017) Influencia del neoliberalismo en el Trabajo social chileno: discursos de profesionales y usuarios, Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Sociales, 8(1): 125–48. doi: 10.21501/22161201.1940
-
Wallace, J. and Pease, B. (2011) Neoliberalism and Australian social work: Accommodation or resistance? Journal of Social Work, 11: 132–42. doi: 10.1177/1468017310387318
-
Weinberg, M. and Banks, S. (2019) Practicing ethically in unethical times: everyday resistance in social work, Ethics and Social Welfare, 13(4): 361–76, doi: 10.1080/17496535.2019.1597141.
-
Weinberg, M. and Taylor, S. (2014) ‘Rogue’ social workers: the problem with rules for ethical behavior, Critical Social Work, 15(1): 74–86.
| May 2022 onwards | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Full Text Views | 22 | 22 | 21 |
| PDF Downloads | 15 | 15 | 14 |
We are a leading social science publisher
committed to making a difference.
Bristol University Press and
Policy Press
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk