Research Lines

The research and optional subjects of the course are distributed in three lines:

1) Work, Social Relations and Social Work;
2) Social Question, Public Policies and Social Work;
3) Identities, Culture, Public Policies and Social Work.

They aim to investigate, build knowledge and elaborate policy proposals on the themes.


1.  Work, Social Relations and Social Work

1.1 Social Work and Professional Formation
The process of academic-professional formation of the Social Worker. Historical approaches.

1.2 Historical, theoretical-methodological and ethical-political fundamentals of Social Work
Historical foundations and professional work. Theoretical-methodological, technical-operative and ethical-political dimensions of Social Work in contemporary times.

1.3 Social Work in the international context, with emphasis on Latin America
Studies relevant to Social Work based on the recognition of the profound changes that are taking place in Latin America and in the world. It seeks to promote and deepen exchanges, agreements and partnerships within Latin America and other countries with significant development of Social Work.

1.4 Historical reconstruction in work and education
Theoretical-methodological foundations of social research. Labor relations and training of workers. History of work and education. Educational policies and education systems.

1.5 Work, politics and territory
Forms of Organization and Meanings of Work in Capitalist Production. Work, Politics and Social Struggles. Development, Territory and Politics.City, Urban Policy and Social Struggles.Work, Culture and Ways of Life.Work, Sociability and Social Work.

1.6. Work, rights, policies and Social Work
Work and work in services. Processes, conditions, policies and worker rights. Organization and struggles of workers. Ethics, professional ethics and politics. Worker health and the environment. Social Work in programs and work processes with workers. Social workers as workers.


2. Social Question, Public Policies and Social Work

2.1 Social Policy and Social Work
Approaches to the social issue. The social policy debate. Financing, control, participation and democratic management. Sectoral policies. Historical relationship between social policy, class struggle and Social Work in Brazil and other Latin American countries.

2.2 Health, Social Work and Social Movements
Social Security, Social Work and Health. Financing, control, participation and democratic management of health. Relationship between political subjects, social struggles and health.

2.2 Violence, Human Rights and Social Policies
Aggravation of the phenomenon of violence as an expression of the social question; Human Rights in the context of class society contradiction; gap between universal assumptions and their practical objectification; Ethical motivations for political actions. Implications and relations with Social Work.

2.3 Childhood and Adolescence, Youth and Family
Childhood, adolescence, youth and family; inter-institutional articulation and production of subsidies for social policies in Rio de Janeiro; democratic participation and control Implications and relations with Social Work.

2.4 Studies of Latin America and the Caribbean
Socio-cultural, economic and political reality of Latin American countries; Social Conflicts, Political Processes and implications for Social Work.

2.5 Social Classes, Social Movements and Social Work
State, civil society and political subjects; globalization and capital crisis. Social Movements in the 21st century and its implications and relations with Social Work.


3  Identities, Culture, Public Policies and Social Work

3.1. Human rights, gender relations, generation, race and ethnicity
Production of inequalities, including social class, generation, gender, race/ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, as well as the different forms of violence and their implications for Social Work; contemporary sexual and reproductive rights.

3.2. Formation of identities in the educational space, in the socio-occupational spaces and in the professions
The educational space and its interface with different determinations such as the ethnic-racial issue; that of sexist and discriminatory education in the face of different expressions of sexuality. Contemporary expressions of the sexual and ethnic-racial division of labour.

3.3. Gender, ethnic/racial relations, sexualities and public policies
Social policies and programs related to gender, ethnic-racial relations and sexuality; affirmative policies and access of subjects not identified as male or female to social policies; social policies and biopolitics.

3.4. The impact of culture on contemporary societies
Different approaches to culture in contemporary society: interface with power and reproduction of inequalities; the cultural space as resistance and expression of autonomy; the role of the media; experiences with cultural projects in the practice of social workers.

3.5. Gender, Family and Social Inequalities
The relationship between feminist/gender studies and family studies. Gender, vulnerability and social inequality. Intersection of gender, sexual, ethnic-racial, age and generation inequalities in family studies. Family, public policies and Social Work

3.6. Culture, Childhood and Generational and Gender Relations
Inter and intragenerational relationships and care production. Violence, gender and childhood. Social, cultural and institutional models of child protection. Biographical trajectories and narratives about childhood. Social and cultural aspects in childhood production.