Väitös 9.5.2023: Pedro da Silva (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Social Work)

Study revisits the democratic transition in Portugal and reveals the role of social workers in the revolutionary process.

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ID 87899511033

The doctoral research developed by Pedro Gabriel Silva, a student of Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius/JYU/ISCTE-IUL addressed the revolutionary period and the participation of social workers in the 1970’s transition of regime in Portugal. Based on a collection of oral sources with social workers who had had an active participation in several revolutionary fronts, the study looked at how the 25th April 1974 Revolution provided conditions for social workers to substantiate a rupture with professional conservatism.

The study illustrates how the Revolution offered social workers opportunities to affirm progressive and emancipatory professional practices and how the professionals who worked alongside the social and political movements of the time contributed to empower revolutionary initiatives. Participation in initiatives such as the SAAL housing programme or the creation of social and agrarian cooperatives are among the examples the study dealt with. The research retrieves, using the testimonies of social workers, information that deepens the knowledge about this period.

The research sought to understand how social workers openly affirmed politically engaged practices and how this engagement corresponded to a current that, outside Portugal, was gaining prominence in this period: Radical Social Work.

The results showed that the revolutionary process allowed concretizing changes in the Social Work profession in Portugal that were looming before the Revolution. They also showed that the participation of social workers in revolutionary initiatives contributed to politicize professional practice and that social work’s radical engagement and political activism did not necessarily cause professional deidentification or disaffiliation.

Supervised by professors Aila-Leena Matthies and Jorge Ferreira, the study resulted from a co-tutelle agreement between ISCTE- University Institute of Lisbon and the University of Jyväskylä, with the author benefiting from a Edufi fellowship to conduct the research - a fact that highlights the interest that the theme of the Portuguese democratic transition continues to arouse across borders.

Link to publication: JYX - Social work in the Revolution : political agency and intervention of social workers in the democratic transition in Portugal (1974-1975) (jyu.fi)