Ten statements for considering professional identity in Social Work: an invitation to international debate at the outset of the 21st century

Abstract

This theoretical article covers issues fundamental to the discipline in providing an interpretation located in the reality of South America, and basing it on the questions that social workers are currently raising. Based on a justificatory context that reveals a need to reflect on professional identity, the argument is structured around ten statements that together summarise the most significant aspects, in order to produce an analytical framework that shows the restrictions —but also the possibilities— of developing a core that represents the margins on which professionals rely to identify themselves as such and to maintain professional awareness. We show that, as social work emerges through a process of modernization, and in light of the changes occurring during the transition to the 21st century, its assumptions and foundations must be reviewed from a postmodern perspective. In the contemporary context, an analysis of the role of the professional in social policies, practices and the subject that gives rise to the intervention must be rooted in local practice contexts and in transcultural dialogue.