Social Work as a means of control: an analysis from the perspective of historical Epistemology

Abstract

Historically, social work has allied with power and professionalised care in response to the pressures and imbalances of capitalism. Control is key to understanding social work, in the sense that its expertise is implemented using institutional discourse and practices; that is, via an epistemological conception that endorses certain forms of knowledge, practices and support. This work argues that social work is effective when generating subjectivities among people and transmitting certainty through the exercise of power. In chronological order, it is shown how following the achievement of emancipation from the stratified model, liberal society and individualism formed the bases for capitalism. This is the natural space in which social work will exercise a form of control as mediator between capital and labour. Its institutional presence, its mimicry of the Catholic Church and the ideological connection of the first schools and training processes make it necessary to resort to the concept of control to explain the rise of social work in Spain.