Power, Politics, and Social Work

In this chapter some reflections are examined linking social work with power and politics. These reflections are raised from a Latin American and decolonial perspective. The urgency and the need to reinvent social work around the world is argued in view of the deepening of social inequalities caused by a capitalist-colonial-patriarchal social order. Likewise, the need to build a political view of social work is argued, as well as a greater commitment to social movements and their struggles to transform these social inequalities and the current social order. Theoretical reflections are accompanied by historical evidence that illustrates these struggles, as well as experiences of professional practices of social work. These reflections are also linked to the themes of the global agenda for social work and social development, as well as the world definition of social work by the International Federation of Social Workers.