Strategies of social welfare users: a relational readi ng concerning power relations

• Main Author: Silvana Aparecida Mariano
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Colegio de México 2013-01-01
• Series: Estudios Sociológicos
• Subjects: Asistencia pública; Aspectos sociales; Brasil; Londrina (Paraná); Mujeres; Política gubernamental; Londrina (Paraná, Brasil); Política social; Poder (Ciencias sociales); Programa Bolsa Família (Brasil)
• Online Access: http://estudiossociologicos.colmex.mx/index.php/es/article/view/121

This article addresses the analysis of power relations within the operation of social welfare policy, based on a case study conducted in Londrina, Paraná. Our analysis adopts a relational perspective on the confi guration of power among the beneficiaries of the policy and the social workers responsible for implementing state actions to fi ght poverty. Basically what we found were areas of dissonance between conceptions and perceptions of users and social workers, so that an unreadable universe is created for users on social welfare and, thus, possible ways to consolidate the transfer of income are blocked as a right to citizenship. We focus on actions related to the transfer of income because of its relevance to the Brazilian social welfare today.