Abstract

SAAVEDRA-VASQUEZ, Juan. About the legitimacy of social intervention. Reflections from Chile. Prospectiva [online]. 2023, n.36, e21012628.  Epub June 09, 2023. ISSN 0122-1213.  https://doi.org/10.25100/prts.v0i36.12628.

For the discipline of social work, it is necessary to discuss the theoretical, ethical, and political achievements of the intervention. To his end, several conceptual proposals are reviewed in order to sustain the need to theoretically address the issue of the legitimacy of intervention. There was an interest to contextualize this discussion socially and historically, within the framework of the evidence of both individual and collective neoliberal submission.

After the bibliographic review, three responses were proposed to respond to the origin of the legitimacy of social intervention: a) from its subject to norms, b) in the search for social justice, and c) in the deconstructive foundations of enunciative ethics. It is concluded that this proposal must take into account the neoliberal history that shakes Latin America.

The review of the problem of the legitimacy of social intervention contributes to the definition of its meaning and scope. This article assumes that it is not possible to restrict the intervention exclusively in the field of social work. Therefore, this debate on legitimacy must involve ethical-political aspects that have an impact on the construction of a public agenda in times of social transformation.

Keywords : Social intervention; Legitimacy; Social work; Neoliberalism.

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