Social Work: a utopia of professional autonomy?

Abstract

This paper retrieves some of the aspects and debates of the investigation Las profesiones en las actuales relaciones Estado/ sociedad: el caso del Trabajo Social (“Professions in modern state-society relations: the case of Social Work”), conducted at the School of Social Work of the National University of Cordoba between the years of 2004 and 2007. The work focused on the professional practices and degree of autonomy/heteronomy of social workers, particularly as this is applied in relation to two matters that we consider chief in specifically defining the social intervention of the profession: decisionmaking processes and discourses on subjects of interest. The purpose of the research is to analyse the conceptions, justifications and decisions underlying the interventions of social workers within the sub-sector of the state, civil and mercantile society.