Theoretical and epistemological influences on the intervention of female social workers from Galicia

Abstract

There are different methodological perspectives through which social intervention can take place, which depend on the paradigm and the epistemological perspective from which society is analyzed. A qualitative research is proposed from the interpretive paradigm through a sample of 15 social workers from different areas of Galicia (Spain), with the aim of describing the imaginary they have about social intervention. The results show that there are three ontological positions in the professionals, a positivist that grants a capacity of action to the attenuated subject and uses a structured process in a linear way; another interpretative one based on the processes of communication and comprehension and other criticism, through which the active participation of the subject is encouraged throughout the intervention process. Being the systemic-ecological models, the case management, the task-centered and the critical, as well as the generalist method, the ones that most influence the professionals. Identifying diffe rences according to the work environment.