Concepts to reinterpret professional social work practice: a reflection with students from Universidad de Cartagena in the Colombian Caribbean region

Abstract

Based on the outcomes of a study, this article presents a map of definitions for social work practices from the perspective of the experiences and images that final-year students on the Social Work programme at Universidad de Cartagena, Colombia have constructed in that regard. Defining social work practices requires an investigative exercise that recognizes their multisemantic, plural and complex nature. This measure involves practices being conceived as an object of study based on a central premise: they could not be located or classified within a single definition or concept, but rather are the result of intersubjective constructions that require a theoretical and methodological exercise focused more on understanding than explanation. In other words, practices gain meaning from interaction and from the perception of the “here and now” held by different subjects – in this case, the students who experience them. It is in this interaction of multiple interests where practices are shaped and reshaped, developing elements of meaning that can be diverse, opposed, complementary or simply plural.