DIFFERENT CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROFESSION

social work as a job or an ideological complex?

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the different conceptions of Social Work that have developed since the country's re-democratization process. The understanding that Social Work is equivalent to the category of Labor (in Marx) is currently the most accepted within the professional category, but it is not the only contemporary conception of the nature of the profession. From the 1990s onwards, scholars of Lukács' thought began to conceive of Social Work as being closer to an ideological complex, putting the discussion on the agenda. It is necessary to consider both conceptions and their arguments from now on, precisely because thinking about the nature of the profession makes the professionals who are part of it more aware of what it can represent and aspire to in everyday practice.