A profissão de assistente social em Portugal

The article focuses on the social work profession in Portugal. It presents a historical overview of the evolution of Social Work profession in our country and a general profile of the profession. Another purpose is to analyse the main features and the power of this group as a historical profession in the social field. Following the proposal of Weiss & Welbourn (2007), the analysis developed combines an approach based on «attributes» of occupations («attributes approach») and an approach that conceives the professions in terms of «power» («power approach»). The main objective of this paper is, using a similar analitical perspective to Weiss & Welbourn, to support and enhance the comparative analysis of this profession, both as in a more general level of international comparison, as in the specific context of Southern Europe, which our country is part (cross-national analysis).