A direção social estratégica da produção de conhecimentos no Serviço Social: uma análise da produção teórico-metodológica da pós-graduação em Serviço Social da Universidade Estadual da Paraíba

Abstract

The current dissertation is focused on knowledge production in social work, specially its strategic social direction. It is a result of a research conducted with the general aim of analyzing the relation between the production of theoretical knowledge of the post-graduation program in social work from the Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (PPGSS/UEPB) and the social strategic direction of the profession it had as its specific objectives: Identify the prevalent thematic in the productions; learn the theoretical perspective presented in the studies and identify the most used bibliographic references. The interest in the thematic started due to our participation in the research and social practices center (NUPEPS), when we had the opportunity to take part in studies and discussions developed around the topic of the research and knowledge production in social work, as well as scientific initiation projects. Concerning the methodology, we prioritized the conduct of documental research, having as universe the dissertations produced in the PPGSS/UEPB. It is based on the critical-dialectical method, which allows the analysis of phenomena from a totality perspective in order to reveal the dynamics of movement between the appearance and essence of the object of study. The results suggest that, although a considerable amount of dissertations are in harmony with the postmodern ideals, a social direction based on the Marxist theoretical-methodological perspective prevails in the analyzed theoretical knowledge, thus signaling an approximation relationship with the social direction. Finally, we believe that the results presented here can contribute to the production of knowledge debate in the social work and strengthening of graduate studies in the area, in line with the profession’s ethical-political project. In addition to contributing to the socialization of knowledge produced by the PPGSS/UEPB, as well as contributing to the visibility of its importance for the area of knowledge, for the profession, for the Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (UEPB) and for those who build the program on a daily basis.