Counter Spring that Resists: ontological analysis of the social worker’s pratice in times of civilizational crisis (of capital)

Abstract

The capitalist crisis presents itself as a civilizational crisis and is rapidly advancing towards the exacerbation of barbarism. In the context of the polarization of class struggle, this article aims to discuss the ontological foundations of the professional competence of social workers linked to the interests of the working class. To this end, we present a bibliographic study based on the Marxist tradition, notably Marx (2011), Lukács (2013), Mészáros (2009, 2011), Heller (2008), and Zetkin (2019). Here, we will analyze the nature of the social worker’s practice in the current historical context, where capitalist destructiveness challenges human life, and we will outline the concept of professional competence grounded in the interests of the working class, which, beyond the use of neutral techniques, operates in a theoretical-practical sense to confront human exploitation and oppression, addressing human estrangement, opposing capitalist barbarism with professional interventions based on criticism.