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Call for Papers. Special Number “Comparative Public Policies: Innovations and Challenges in a Global Context Under Strain”.
Submissions in Spanish and English are accepted until November 15, 2025, for publication in Issue 11 of the journal on April 30, 2026. Read more
Reflections on the Political History of Social Work: Complicities and Resistances in Turbulent Times
Authors
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Vasilios Ioakimidis
University of West Attica
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0457-6782
Abstract
This article presents a critical review of Social Work in the context of the centenary of its first school in Chile and Latin America, through three figures from Greek mythology: Nemesis, Sisyphus, and Prometheus, which serve as analogies for some of the challenges and opportunities
currently faced by the discipline on a global scale. Drawing on a reflection on the political history of Social Work and focusing on some of the paradigmatic crossroads it has encountered, the article revisits the historical complicities of social services with oppression, colonisation, authoritarianism, precarisation, as well as the marketisation of care. At the same time, it highlights the emancipatory and resistant practices that have been inscribed in the history and present of the discipline, calling for their projection and strengthening into the future, under a transformative commitment oriented toward social justice, class solidarity, and the inclusion of individuals and communities that capitalism and neoliberal states continue to marginalise.
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