Organización estudiantil del Servicio (Trabajo) Social en la dictadura chilena: desde la Universidad de Chile al Instituto Profesional de Santiago

Abstract

This article examines the forms of student organisation that emerged within the Social Service degree at the University of Chile during its transfer to the Professional Institute of Santiago (IPS) following the 1973 civil–military coup. It argues that, despite the repressive context of the dictatorship, Social Service/Social Work students succeeded in maintaining their student organisation, and after 1981, within the IPS, they built a new collective whose identity remained closely connected to the University of Chile. Methodologically, the study is based on in-depth individual and group interviews with former student leaders of the programme and of the FECH during the period, complemented by a bibliographic review and documentary analysis of primary and secondary sources. This approach made it possible to identify continuities and ruptures in organisational forms, student demands, and strategies of resistance against the neoliberal policies and the University Reform imposed by the dictatorship.

Contributing to the historiography of Social Work in Chile, within the framework of its centenary, this article highlights the legacy of student movements and organisations of the period, helping to reconstruct a collective memory that illuminates the tensions and transformations shaping professional education in times of dictatorship.