Cidade Devastada: uma análise do trabalho do Serviço Social no desastre socioambiental em Petrópolis (2022)

Abstract

This research aimed to contribute to knowledge about the performance of Social Service in the context of socio-environmental disasters, with a focus on Social Assistance Policy, highlighting Social Assistance Monitoring as an important strategy in monitoring and evaluating contexts of of social inequalities. As a research method, historical and dialectical materialism was used, with the main axes of analysis: structural crisis of capital, socio-environmental disasters and professional performance of Social Services. Regarding the methodology, we opted for qualitative research, as it is a topic that has not yet been explored academically by Social Services, which requires a careful look beyond what is presented from the data. For the same reason, an exploratory case study was carried out, taking for investigation the disaster that occurred in the city of Petrópolis/RJ between February and March 2022. It is proposed, then, to understand the determinations of the problem and not just describe facts. To this end, different sources of data and information were used, namely: field research, through participant observation and production of a field diary, bibliographic research and documentary research. Consulting newspaper websites and social networks was also important to complement the information recorded in the field diary. The results reveal that the role of Social Assistance Policy in Brazil in disaster contexts is not recent, however, no progress has been made in structuring a theoretical-methodological, ethical-political and technical-operational framework from a critical perspective. As a result, professions, including Social Service, have been operating in this field from a subordinate position, in which their action depends on a call from the Civil Defense, a fact that commonly occurs only in the response phase to the disaster crisis. However, in recent years, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, the context in which this policy operates has undergone advances, creating an opportune moment for researchers, managers, technicians and users to advance together in this sphere of action. Many challenges are still faced by professional teams, and understanding the influence of the dynamics of capitalist accumulation on disaster contexts enables professional reflection that this problem requires more forceful responses, which the Social Assistance Policy has not yet offered. In this sense, some strategies have proven to be fundamental for coping with this context, and Social Service emerges as one of the main professions that are capable of implementing such strategies in an articulated way, namely, planning, social mobilization and Social Assistance Monitoring.