Contemporary configuration of capitalism in Our America: Determinations for Social Work

Abstract

The text intends to reflect on the historical determinations of contemporary capitalism in Our America, as the basis for the debate on the challenges of Social Work in the region. Due to contradictions of its mature phase, capitalism reproduces itself at the cost of increasing levels of social and environmental destructiveness, affirming itself in regressive and controlling tendencies that dehumanize the social being. The return of neoliberal hegemony in Our America unleashed a process of dehumanization, of barbarization of social life, which has as its root the destruction of the living force of work through unemployment. This context threatens the consolidation of critical professional projects in Social Work. Restrictions on the relative autonomy in their work, precariousness of contracts, scarcity of resources and instability demarcate the occupational spaces. The re-promotion of social movements can contribute to the formulation of responses to redefine the margins of professional practice.