Critical Social Work in the current context of Latin American redemocratization

Abstract

This article analyses the particularities of the redemocratization process of Latin American political regimes, in an attempt to contribute to the understanding of phenomenon central to our societies today. Since the 1980's, the attempt by Latin America to reorganize its public life in conformity with liberal democratic precepts demonstrated an inequality of political forces in the negotiation of this transition, where political advances were accompanied by the deterioration of living conditions among national majorities. Since critical Social Work historically arose in the framework of democratic regulations, the formation of the profession was intrinsically related to the weaknesses of this process, from which emerge new challenges to the construction of the identity of social workers, principally in the debate over the meaning of the practice, of the process of critical knowledge and of the redimensioning of the relevant proposals in the defense of a socially necessary project in the current Latin American context.