Candeia (1943-1947): um projeto associativo em prol da profissionalização do serviço social

Description

In Portugal, the institutionalisation of social work took place in 1935, with the opening of the Social Service Institute in Lisbon, and was influenced by a set of national and international circumstances, in which the hygienist current and the Catholic social movement stand out. This period in Portuguese history dates back to the construction phase of the Estado Novo, when there was a new national conjuncture in relations between Catholic Church, State and intellectual movements.

This communication is the result of doctoral research, which is still in progress, and focuses on the first associative project in order to professionalise Portuguese social work, carried out by social workers and family educators trained at the Instituto de Serviço Social, Lisbon, and conveyed by the Candeia bulletin. The bulletin, published with varying frequency between january 1943 and april 1947, closely followed the complex and lengthy process of creating the "Association of Social Workers and Family Educators from the Instituto de Serviço Social" (officially recognised in july 1946), by publicising the Association's objectives and activities, even before it became official, and then encouraging the mobilisation of Social Work professionals around a common associative project. Such a project was guided by the safeguarding of professional interests, particularly: defence of the social worker and family educator titles; setting a minimum wage; providing social security in case of illness, invalidity or old age.

It should be emphasised that the Candeia bulletin, and later the "Association of Social Workers and Family Educators of the Instituto de Serviço Social", had the purpose of improving its members, not only professionally, but also morally and religiously, according to the Catholic Church's social doctrine. Admittedly Catholic, in August 1946 the Association was accepted as a full member of the Union Catholique Internationale de Service Social, which intensified the international relations network maintained by Portuguese social work.

Period	12 May 2012
Event title	Jornadas de Estudo «Crença e dinâmicas sociais na época contemporânea»
Event type	Workshop