Rethinking the power of Social Work professionals

  Xavier Pelegrí Viaña
Abstract

Power is a fundamental part of social work insofar as it involves the network of social relationships that produce social intervention. Based on the approach proposed by Foucault, the power of the social work profession is addressed specifically, as well as how it is embedded in every day’s practice. The thread is the knowledge-power binomial, which in professional terms is read as a discipline-exercise of the profession. From this, five dimensions are analyzed in which manifestations of social work’s power can occur and that it are necessary to know how to manage. The analysis is finalized before the conclusions with a brief foray into how the negative sense of power can be reversed in the exercise of the social work profession.

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Keywords:
power, relationships of power, profession, knowledge, social work
Citation: Xavier Pelegrí Viaña (2018). Rethinking the power of Social Work professionals. Revista de Treball Social, 212, .