LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES
CURRENT INFLUENCES ON SOCIAL WORK IN BRAZIL:
PRACTICE AND EDUCATION
Maria das Dores Costa15
General considerations. Conscientization, ideology and reconceptualization are basic and interlinked components that encompass the understanding of the social work movement as it exists in Brazil, as well as in other Latin American countries. The foundation of the interlinkage of these three components can be explained in the historical context in which the Latin American movement of reconceptualization of social work arose during the 1960s.
The style of development prevailing in Latin America in the 1960s looked towards consolidating the expansion of world capitalism. The monopolistic nature of this style of capitalism, characterized by multinational corporations, interfered with the internal affairs of those countries, provoking change in the main axis of the power system as well as shifting the dynamic basis of their productive systems. As a result of these basic changes, groups expressing the interest and modes of organization of international capitalism gained disproportionate influence on the continent.
Within the internal context of each country, the economic model implemented became one of profit accumulation by a small segment of the population in comparison to the great mass of people whose earned income could barely sustain a minimum level of survival. This still-prevalent economic model, which encourages the pauperization of the working class and deterioration of living conditions, is accentuating the distance between the rich and powerful and the poor and disenfranchised, explaining, therefore, the so-called capitalist versus working-class struggle.
Intellectual groups on the continent, including those in the social work profession, who were concerned with this disturbing socioeconomic reality initiated serious discussion on the subject. The discussion within the
15 http://isw.sagepub.com/content/30/2/115
154
social work cadre initially centred on schools of social work and took into consideration that the first aspects to be analysed were ideological before attention was focused on the actual practice of the discipline (IASSW, 1977).
The discussion on the ideological component involved in the socioeconomic reality of the continent brought out the recognition of the class nature of the social work discipline. That is, the rise of social work in the first decade of this century implied a commitment to the ruling and bourgeosie class of society and, therefore, it would legitimatize the existing social structure of production and would follow the dominant scientific knowledge (IASSW, 1977).
Given this situation, which was considered inappropriate, a contrary ideological proposal for social work was envisioned. In this, reconceptualized social work claims for itself activities relating to consciousness-raising, training, organization, and social mobilization, elements of a process through which it is possible to visualize the liberation of man (IASSW, 1977). Under this ideological perspective, the working, oppressed, or proletarian class became the class commitment for social work and social workers.
The theoretical base of the movement of reconceptualization was viewed as follows: the first stage of development of the theoretical foundation of reconceptualization rested on a structuralfunctionalistic base and was known generically as basic method. The second stage was to implement those actions based on dialectical materialism, and which were consequently known as dialectic (IASSW, 1977).
In a world-wide context, the reconceptualization of social work in Latin America has been pointed out as having originally emerged in Chile based upon the concept of conscientization, which emerged from the experiences and studies by Paulo Freire and other educators in Brazil, working with adults of proletarian backgrounds, both urban and rural. The intrinsic relation of ideology and conscientization with the reconceptualization of social work is so evident that one cannot speak about reconceptualization in Latin America – more specifically in Brazil – without implying the notions of conscientization and ideology.
In order to provide a national perspective of the subject, a review of the literature on reconceptualization of social work was undertaken. The most eminent journal on social work, Social Work and Society (Service Social e Sociedade) was used as the basis. This journal, considered to be very progressive, is the major one on social work in the country.
155
The choice of this journal is very relevant to the purpose of this paper. Its first issue, in September 1979, was closely connected with the political and historical events of 1 January of that year, a date marking the opening up of the country to democracy as determined by the military government. From that time on, a new perspective on freedom of speech provided for a proliferation and circulation of ideas on reconceptualization. From September 1979 to December 1983, this quarterly journal produced thirteen issues. From these thirteen issues, forty-one articles dealing with the reconceptualization of social work were reviewed.
Reconceptualization of social work in Brazil. Although the discussion on the reconceptualization of social work dates to the middle of 1960, the process of its development shows some specific facets. Coinciding with the rise of the movement, an authoritarian regime following the military coup of 31 March 1964 was introduced in the country. This totalitarian political system would not tolerate any sort of opposition, criticism, popular pressure, or the like, introducing a long period of restricted freedom, and limiting the field for discussion on the emerging reconceptualization of social work in Brazil.
Although it would appear contradictory, it can be argued that the military coup of 1964 may have actually been beneficial to reconceptualization in Brazil. First of all ... the period favoured the incorporation of many of the existing schools into the federal university network. To those schools, this meant not only a kind of financial relief, but mainly that professors were gradually being provided with more time available to carry out activities outside of the classroom.
A second point concerns the opportunities of graduate programmes created in social work education in this period. These opportunities stimulated a more serious climate of study, research and reflection among social work educators and professionals. It would appear that, on the one hand, because of the newly opened opportunities for study and, on the other hand, because of limitations in practice and action by the repressive regime, a propitious atmosphere of reexamination and of redefining social work has been precipitated for social work educators and professionals in Brazil.
Based on the assumptions above, it seems appropriate to look at the development of the discussions of reconceptualization of social work in Brazil from the perspectives of scientific production and product of the movement.
Scientific production. The theme of reconceptualization has provided social work with a vast and rich indigenous literature. The above-
156
mentioned propitious atmosphere for the study of reconceptualization as precipitated by the military government gained new shape after what has been called the opening up of democracy. This period in 1979 provided the conditions needed for proliferation and open circulation of the ideas of the reconceptualization movement.
In this regard, the schools of social work have performed a very significant role. The number of masters programmes in social work increased and the first doctorate programme in social work was created in 1981. This expansion resulted in the enlargement of intellectual conditions for undertaking research on reconceptualization and, therefore, strengthened the basis of scientific production in this area. Bearing testimony to this fact are the forty-one articles dealing with the reconceptualization of social work, the authors of thirty-seven of these being social work educators or students. In addition, it is worth noting the relevant contribution to the reconceptualization of social work of books by Brazilian social work educators (Maria Luiza de Souza, Vicente de Paula Faleiros and Josefa Batista Lopes, among others).
Product. It is possible to assert that the vast and rich indigenous literature on social work that developed during this period and is still in use, is the greatest contribution of the movement of reconceptualization to the social work profession in Brazil. The same observation does not seem to hold for the perspective of the reconceptualization of social work as product, that is, the result of the movement in terms of having created a theoretical and methodological body of knowledge specific to and for social work.
Although one can take dialectic and historic materialism as the representative theoretical framework for the movement, references for methods of intervening do not yet seem to be available. In this regard, Kamayana stated that: Considering the experiences that social work professionals have been going through in the process of reconceptualization for approximately two decades, notwithstanding changes of perspective in regard to professional objectives… social work has not yet found a method of intervention coherent with its theoreticalmethodological tendencies.
It would appear that the rupture created by the movement of reconceptualization in relation to traditional social work was not accompanied by the discovery of an appropriate method of intervention. The search for this product remains the challenge for those involved in scientific production related to the reconceptualization of social work.
Issues in the reconceptualization of social work in Brazil
157
The literature analysed suggests the existence of three major issues related to the reconceptualization of social work in Brazil. These are (1) political and professional practice, (2) institutional practice, and (3) social work education.
Political and professional practice. According to Delgado (1981), the political involvement of the social worker is a new reality of the profession, which came about together with the political changes that were occurring in the country at the end of the 1970s. In addition to this, she points out the contribution of reconceptualization as a propelling movement towards the political involvement of the social worker and also the current configuration of the professional class. To this latter factor, it is suggested that the previous professional category, comprised of the bourgeoisie elite without economic and survival problems, has been replaced by professionals coming from the middle segment of the population. By virtue of this change, the social worker is as much a wage-earner as other members of the working class. A result of this new class configuration is that the social work professional has to cope with the same struggles and issues as the wage-earning class as a whole. This new class perspective seems to imply that the previous professional subordination to the interest of the dominant class appears now to be subordinate to the interest of the working class.
This dimension of the professional political practice has been discussed by Lima (1982), who points out three specific and interlinked areas for the political purpose of the profession. The first area, considered by Lima to be the more specifically professional, refers to social policy of the state and social work professional practice at the institutions where social policies are implemented. The professional strategy in this context seems to be, on the one hand, the democratization of the institution through client or subaltern class pressure and, on the other hand, social workers conquest of autonomous space in order to ensure a professional practice addressed to the clientele or popular class.
The second area for the social workers political purpose, in Limas opinion, is professional engagement with social movements and popular organizations. According to her, such engagement can emerge as much from a popular basis as through links with those institutions in which the social worker is employed. The strategy in this case is the identification of the social worker with the interest, way of fighting, and political proposals of the popular class.
The third area for political practice pointed out by Lima is specific
158
to the professional category: through social workers professional associations, trade unions, national and regional councils, and so forth. The political perspective in this professional field does not appear to be related only to professional rights such as minimum wage, labour market, and so on, but to the strategic support of those professional organizations for social workers overt engagement with the struggles of the working class.
As can be observed, the discussion on the political component of social work in Brazil has a deep ideological commitment. The social worker either remains integrated with the functionalist orientation of legitimatizing, through his or her practices, the interests of the dominant class, or chooses the option of dialectic materialism, according to which professional practice is committed to the interests of the subaltern classes. Under this latter option, the social worker is supposed to incorporate the proletariats political proposal of transforming society, which seems to imply life option, dispossession, political struggle in order that the popular classes can assume the economic, political and cultural power in the society.
As can be observed, the first two political areas proposed by Lima are relevant to both public and private institutions, the main place in which the social worker performs his or her practice. The implications will be dealt with in the following section.
Institutional practice. Institutions seem to be an inevitable reality for the social worker everywhere. Within the context in which social policies of the state are implemented, institutions constitute the basic field of action for the social worker. However, the initiators of the movement of reconceptualization, in making the schools of social work the main setting and laboratory for knowledge-building towards reconceptualizing social work, appear to have ignored this obvious reality. This initial mistake seems to have contributed toward polarizing the perspective of the movement. On the one side, it would seem to be social work educators who, based on the dialectical materialistic ideology of the movement, opted to ignore the existing institutional setting and its social policy programmes because they saw their ideological orientation as a maintainer of the status quo. On the other side, those in the institutional setting, with its social policy programmes, appear to have rejected the dialectic materialistic orientation because it was perceived as a radical departure from current practice.
This polarized posture of the movement seems to have generated negative consequences for the reconceptualization of social work by having
159
circumscribed its discussion to a specific group and, in doing so, limited the number of adherents to the movement. In this respect, the needed but nonexistent definition of a specific method of intervention of reconceptualization might have gained significant insight from the accumulated experiences of many conservative social workers with professional practice experience in institutions. Instead, these professionals seem to have withdrawn, feeling threatened in general by the extreme ideology and hermetic terminology of the reconceptualized social worker.
However, the recognition of the problem created for the professional practice of reconceptualized social work by this avoidance of the institutional setting seems to have led the movement towards a different perspective regarding its relationship with the social policy of the state, and the institutional setting in Brazil as well as in the rest of Latin America. In Brazil, the dimensions of the problem can be illustrated by the following statement: We can observe that one of the current dilemmas of the social worker is the almost total impossibility of carrying out the job of conscientization, organization, and mobilization in the public and private institution. The problem is aggravated by the fact that almost all social workers work at these institutions. However, in spite of this impossibility, there have been many starts, most of them unsuccessful, culminating in mass dismissal of the professionals involved; others with limited success; and some successful.
The institutional context and the social policies of the state seem to be the most difficult reality to be addressed by the reconceptualized social worker. As components of the countrys capitalist model, both are tied into the logic of the system, which is based on an antagonistic mode of production characterized by an uneven and authoritarian relationship between those who hold or represent the capital interest and those who sell their labour.
Based on this logic, the provision of services and social policies is mainly aimed at maintaining the existing conditions of the working force, favouring the accumulation of private capital. Within this perspective, it appears evident that the ideas of reconceptualization are not taken into consideration when establishing social policies, and when providing services in Brazil.
These considerations lead to the following question: to what extent can the ideological and political practice perspective of reconceptualized social work be made compatible within the institutional context? One point of view has been presented by Leila Lima and Rodrigues, who state that the
160
only possibility of logical and political coherence in the unit that constitutes the action and the thought resides in our defining completely ... one and only one epistemological conception, that in turn implies the existence of one, and only one, theoretical production associated with the interests of one, and only one, social class (1980). Their point of view seems to imply that all social workers, in the course of their professional practice, are involved in scientific production, which, as discussed previously, is an unrealistic perspective for Brazil.
A further observation concerns the epistemological conception implied in the statement, which suggests a limiting perspective on knowledge-building for social work based only on historic and dialectic materialism. The point is neither to deny the epistemological grounds of the Marxist approach nor to imply the perspective of neutrality in the process of knowledge-building. Rather, it is to ponder, on the one side, the limited and restricted criteria prescribed for this process, and, on the other, the risk of taking the knowledge built under this perspective as a dogmatic truth, without a profound internal criticism of the theoretical framework.
Another approach to the political practice of reconceptualized social work is presented by Faleiros (1979), which consists of four strategic alternatives for professional intervention.
Faleiross first alternative refers to professional integration in the modernization process of the institution. According to him, it is a conservative modernization whose major characteristic is the maintenance of professionalization without political engagement, reflecting the ideology of neutrality. His second alternative, opposite to the first, implies the denial of institutional work, being created an alternative process starting with popular struggles and movements. According to him this was, basically, the strategy utilized in Chile under Allendes government.
The third alternative, which Faleiros named counterinstitutional, is based on the counter-cultural trend, it calls for a non-institutional institution. It implies deprofessionalization of services, extinction of norms and control, and the placing of all decision-making power in the hands of the clients. According to Faleiros, anti-psychiatry is a manifestation of this trend.
Finally, Faleiross fourth alternative aims at transforming the correlation of institutional forces by the formation of a commitment-to- struggle alliance among technicians and professionals and the categories and groups of dominated classes victimized by the institutions. It is a rupture with unrestricted loyalty to institutional violence ... The institution
161
which is used to utilize the dominated class will be utilized by them. Faleiross second and fourth alternatives are related to two of Limas
areas for political practice. The conquest of institutional space and engagement with popular movements appear to be two possible ways envisioned for the professional practice of reconceptualization. Even among reconceptualized social workers, there is disagreement on this proposal. The strategy for social workers to win institutional space, for example, has been criticized from the perspective that it becomes a strategy for professional survival.
Social work education. As stated previously, the schools of social work have been the major source of scientific production on reconceptualization. It follows from this that the same range of issues analysed above also occupies the attention of professors and students within the educational milieu.
The institutional context seems to be as problematic to students field experience as it has been to professional practice, since the same theoretical and ideological proposition of reconceptualization constitutes the current basis in social work education.
In addition to all the other problems previously mentioned and faced by the reconceptualized social workers within the institutional context, social work educators have to cope with an insufficient number of institutions which will offer programmes for social work experience for students. Part of this reaction appears to be related to the so-called traditional social workers, institution employees who feel themselves inadequate and insecure with respect to providing field supervision for the reconceptualized student of social work.
Attempts have been made to provide students with field experience centred on the reconceptualization perspective. The School of Social Work of the Catholic University in Sao Paulo, with the creation of a pilot site (Campo-Piloto), is an example of this effort. The Campo-Piloto site searches to create new spaces for professional intervention that could represent not only a concrete possibility for the involvement of social work in popular social movements, but also, starting from this point, to rethink professional formation based upon new conceptions of social work.
As can be observed, the experience corresponds with the second of Limas proposals, according to which political and professional practice would be engaged in the popular movements. The difference seems to be the link with or supervision of the school of social work in order to ensure field experience for its students.
162
On the whole, the Campo-Piloto represents a professional proposal that incorporates the political dimension, putting it to serve a classs political effort. This experience, associated with a segment of the Catholic Church through its Basis Movement, is quite similar to previous experiences carried out mainly by private Catholic schools of social work several years ago. At that time, the limited access of schools of social work to private and public institutions made them, under Catholic Church sponsorship, create social agencies or community centres in poor urban areas in order to provide field experience for their students. One of the criticisms made at that time was the unrealistic or artificial perspective of the experience as compared with the future practice of the professional at private or public institutions. It would appear that the old criticism is also applicable to current experiences in terms of disregarding or postponing the difficult conquest of institutional space for the reconceptualized social worker.
Two other lines of questioning related to reconceptualization and social work education are also relevant to the discussion within the educational milieu. One of these, referred to previously, is concerned with the implications of class composition of professionals and students with the option of reconceptualized social work for the working class. This point can be analysed from the perspective of students of social work who, in opposition to Delgados point of view, tend to consider their origins as tied into the petite bourgeoisie class. This creates some conflict and doubt among students who carry with them the history of one social and cultural class background and are expected to make decisions and act in accordance with an opposite class. According to some students, to rationalize and to act dialectic is what is intended; however, it is recognized as being very difficult, because one reproduces much of what has been received from the old familiar and academic structure. It is the opinion of other students that we end up reproducing ready made phrases without translating these ideas and thoughts [reconceptualization] into our daily action.
As can be observed, the organic linkage of social work professionals, educators and students with the proletarian class is still a problem for reconceptualization. The dimension of this problem is indeed associated with the antagonizing class perspective of the capitalist system.
In a class society the ideologization of the dominant class has historically been stronger and more powerful than any other ideological orientation. Evidence of this is the transmission of the dominant class ideology through a well organized cultural industry imprinting and
163