Crisis over crisis: Covid-19 and two innovation proposals from Chile

ABSTRACT

Chilean Social Work has its origins and has developed facing crises. The first chool founded in 1925—worked directly with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and syphilis, exposing their causes: overcrowding, poor housing conditions, poverty and exploitation of working classes. The Pinochet’s dictatorship and related political crises during the last decades have also impacted the development of social work . Recently, gross inequalities and further discontent about the neoliberal Chilean model broke out last year when mass civil protests took over the country. A new crisis emerged with the arrival of COVID 19 exposing poverty, inequality, oppression, and dispossession accumulated during the decades, just as in the inception of the profession. In this paper, we discuss two initiatives promoted by the Department of Social Work at the University of Chile which propose to address professional training in the context of political and sanitary crises. The first initiative ‘Transdisciplinary Nucleus of Social Work’ integrates research and intervention seeking to impact public discussions, creating integrated spaces of professional and academic training of undergraduate and graduate social work students. The second initiative ‘Social Work Researchers Network—Online Training’ provides students and social workers with free access to social work courses donated by the network’s members.

KEYWORDS:

• Chile
• crisis
• innovation
• research
• social work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo. ANID/CONICYT/FONDECYT N°1190257; Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Chilean Government. Fondef Project ID17I10033.

Notes on contributors

Teresa Matus Sepúlveda

Teresa Matus Sepúlveda is an academic at the Department of Social Work, University of Chile. Director of the reopening of Social Work program at that University. Coordinator of the Nucleus of Effective Innovations in Public Policy (NIepp). D. in Social Work from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. D. in Sociology from the University Candido Mendes IUPERJ. Founding member of the Public Policy Society in Chile. Founding member of the Network of Researchers in Social Work. She has developed a line of research in Social Work theories, epistemology in Social Sciences and Innovations in Public Policy.

Adriana Kaulino de Almeida

Adriana Kaulino de Almeida is an academic from the Faculty of Psychology at the Diego Portales University. D. in Psychology from the Universidad de Chile. Researcher of the Nucleus of Effective Innovations in Public Policy (Niepp). Former Dean of the Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Diego Portales. Director of the Program on History and Critical Theories of Psi Knowledge at the Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Diego Portales. She has developed a line of research in relation to psychological theories, critical history of Psychology and autonomy of intervention teams in social programs.

Gianinna Muñoz Arce

Gianinna Muñoz Arce PhD in Social Work, academic at the Department of Social Work, University of Chile. Coordinator of Interdisciplinary Social Work Studies Research Cluster. Member of the Network of Researchers in Social Work. Research areas: social work debates, theory and practice approaches, frontline implementation.

Tal Reininger Pollak

Tal Reininger Pollak PhD in Social Work, academic at the Department of Social Work, University of Chile. Member of the Network of Researchers in Social Work. Research areas: social work, poverty and exclusion, social intervention.