Social policies and public fund in the current conjuncture: some reflections for Social Work

Abstract

This article presents a bibliographic-documentary analysis on the discussion of social policies in Brazil, its relationship with the public fund and the ebbs and flows exerted in the area of Social Work. It is possible to see that the social and historical trajectory of social policies in the country was marked by the absence of a Welfare State, which corroborated the construction of fragmented and focused social policies. In turn, with the change in the place of public funds in late capitalism, social policies became even more targets for dismantling and deregulation, since they were understood as part of the “field of disputes” over resources. Thus, the impacts on training and work in Social Work are undeniable, especially when considering that the profession has consolidated itself in Brazil with a privileged locus in social policies, currently crossed by the contradictions of the public fund and the ultra-neoliberal advance.