Da práxis à reificação: a trajetória de assistentes sociais inseridas no “terceiro setor” de Varginha/MG

Abstract

This research presents everyday life as a space of struggles and correlation of forces permeated by ideologies within capitalist society. Place where new means of organizing are created, and the “third sector” is constituted as such. Thus, social service within the organizations that comprise it also goes through this dialectical process. Influenced by neoliberal ideology, the sector has been gaining prominence in the provision of public policies to replace the State. So, the objective of the research is to analyze, from the oral narratives of the social workers, how praxis and reification are related in the daily life of third sector organizations in the municipality of Varginha/MG, regarding the provision of social public policies. The research went through methodological stages that involved the use of thematic oral history as a method, which allowed a deepening of the daily work and of the participants. Subsequently, for the analysis and discussion of the results, we used a critical theoretical framework with a Marxian and Marxist base, capable of subsidizing a discussion of the contradictions promoted by the antinomy “praxis x reification” in the institutional routine. Within a critical and exploratory approach, we sought to discuss the categories of work, praxis and reification in Marx and Lukács, against the background of the rise of the third sector based on the vision of Montaño (2010), with the analysis based on the theory of hegemony in Gramsci. Within this correlation of forces that places third sector institutions under an ideological umbrella that runs from neo-Thomist values to those of corporate philanthropy as opposed to a critical social service that questions these conservative values, we can envision a professional practice that comes in small and isolated caravels against the tide of this turbulent and stormy ocean called the third sector.