Abstract
In this chapter some reflections are examined linking social work with power and politics. These reflections are raised from a Latin American and decolonial perspective. The urgency and the need to reinvent social work around the world is argued in view of the deepening of social inequalities caused by a capitalist-colonial-patriarchal social order. Likewise, the need to build a political view of social work is argued, as well as a greater commitment to social movements and their struggles to transform these social inequalities and the current social order. Theoretical reflections are accompanied by historical evidence that illustrates these struggles, as well as experiences of professional practices of social work. These reflections are also linked to the themes of the global agenda for social work and social development, as well as the world definition of social work by the International Federation of Social Workers.
TopThe Construction Of Social Order And Power
Social workers have history. We cannot deny or ignore our own history. We should recognize and appreciate it, because we are historical subjects, we have memory. This memory also allows us to observe that, for multiple reasons, we were not always able to question the status quo, the established order, with all the consequences that this entails, since what is not questioned cannot be transformed. This is obviously a paradox, because the aspiration of social work is precisely to transform reality, to change the social order.
Now, what are we talking about when we say social order? Why do we use the term social order? What do we mean about the concept of social order? There are so many interpretations because we can understand it in multiple ways. Concurring with Waldo Ansaldi, an Argentine thinker, the social order is for me a historic, collective, political and controversial construction. It involves a complex web of processes in which the relations of power, exploitation and domination are constitutive of these processes. That is why the construction of order always involves the building of an institutional matrix, which regulates the mode of exercising that power (Ansaldi & Giordano, 2012, p. 683).
If social order is a historical construction, then it is not something natural or attributable to some divinity. It is a human construction and therefore changeable. So, is the position “it was always this way” or “nothing can change”, acceptable for social work? I believe that it is not, as within all social practices, despite inertia, there is always the possibility of change as they are human constructions and therefore can be modified. If we deny this, we deny the possibility of social change and we also deny the possibilities of social work as a profession that aims for social change.
Therefore, to address the question of social order and the possibility of social change, we should refer first to power and to the way that power is exercised. This implies that we should refer to large-scale or macro factors of power that shape and sustain the order that today oppresses us and drowns us as human beings, societies, countries and peoples. Here I am referring to capitalism, patriarchy and the coloniality of power.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social Agenda: Political document prepared by the International Federation of Social Workers.
Recovered Factories: Experience developed in Argentina in 2001 of self-management of workers.
Social Order: Historical, political, social conflicting construction where power and domination are constitutive of it.
Social Inequalities: Social conditions in which some social groups have advantages or privileges in relation to other social groups.
Reinvention: Capacity for reconfiguration, recreation, innovation, permanent renewal.
Social Movements: Ability of human beings to organize collectively for action in defense of their rights.
Decolonial Perspective: Latin American epistemological, theoretical, and methodological option.