i
Call for Papers. Special Number "100 Years of Social Work: Discussions and Perspectives on the Discipline's Past, Present and Future". Submissions in Spanish or English until the 30th October 2024 for publication in April 2025 (Issue 9). For more information please see the following link.
Social work and elites.
Authors
-
Cristobal Villalobos
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1964-7213
Abstract
Understood as social groups that are located at the top of the social scale, elites are a central actor in modern societies. Although heterogeneous, these groups can be characterized by their social and political influence on local and global levels, their deep intertwined relationship with knowledge production and distribution, and by the use of meritocracy as the main rationale for justifying privilege. Although these characteristics position elites as relevant social subjects in contemporary societies, Social Work has scarcely explored intervention and disciplinary research agendas with/on/for these subjects. As a way of addressing this research gap, this paper explores the manner in which it is possible to understand the people who have the most privileges and capital as subjects of social intervention. The paper explores four possibilities of disciplinary research and action: creating interventions that lead to terminating or limiting the processes of elite reproduction; developing intervention and research mechanisms and devices that allow for the reduction in social gaps while? bringing the elites closer to the rest of society; the need to understand elites as a key? part of contemporary political communities, highlighting their role in addressing challenges such as the climate crisis, xenophobia and/or the crisis of democracy and; the need to discuss the ways in which the discipline itself generates processes and mechanisms of (re)production of knowledge elites. The paper concludes by reflecting on the extent to which this agenda allows us to question the very locus of Social Work, as well as the historical and political foundations of the discipline.Keywords:
Elites, Social Work, Social InterventionReferences
Abbink, J. y Salverda, T. (eds.). The anthropology of elites: Power, culture, and the complexities of distinction. Palgrave Macmillan.
Aries, E. y Seider, M. (2005). The interactive relationship between class identity and the college experience: The case of lower income students. Qualitative Sociology, 28 (4), 419–443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-005-8366-1
Bassi, J. (2014). Adiós a la partitura. Una defensa de los diseños flexibles en investigación social. En Canales, M. (coord.). Investigación social. Lenguajes de diseño (pp. 43-72). LOM Ediciones.
Binder, A. y Wood, K. (2014). Becoming right. How campuses shape young conservatives. Princeton University Press.
Bishop, M y Green, M. (2009). Filantrocapitalismo. Como los ricos pueden cambiar el mundo. Ediciones Urano.
Bishop, M. (2013). Philanthrocapitalism: Solving public problems through private means. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 80(2), 473-490. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24385612
Bourdieu, P. (1984). La distinción. Taurus.
Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of capital. En J. Richardson (Ed.). Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241-258). Greenwood.
Bourdieu, P. (2011). Las estrategias de la reproducción social. Siglo XXI Ediciones.
Bourdieu, P. (2013). La nobleza de Estado: educación de elite y espíritu de cuerpo. Siglo XXI Editores.
Bourdieu, P. y Passeron, J-C. (2009). Los herederos. Los estudiantes y la cultura. Siglo XXI Editores.
Brunner, J.J. (1993). Investigación social y decisiones políticas: el mercado del conocimiento. La investigación educacional latinoamericana. Punta de Tralca, Chile. CLACSO.
Camus ([1953]2021). Crónicas. 1944-1953. Random House.
Camus, M. (2019). Habitar el privilegio: relaciones sociales en los fraccionamientos cerrados de Guadalajara. Desacatos, 59, 32-49. https://doi.org/10.29340/59.2048
Chakrabarty, D. (2021). Clima y capital. La vida bajo el Antropoceno. Mimesis.
Chang, H-J. (2018). Economía para el 99% de la población. Debate.
Cook, F. y Moskowitz, R. (2013). The Great Divide: Elite and Mass Opinion about Social Security. Working Paper Series N° 13, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University.
Dalton, R. J. (2008). Citizenship norms and the expansion of political participation. Political Studies, 56(1), 76–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00718.x
Davies, H., Nutley, S. y Smith, P. (2000). What ́s works? Evidence-based policy and practice in the public services. Policy Press.
Dominelli, L. (2004). Social Work. Theory and practice for a changing profession. Polity Press.
Duclos, J.-Y., Esteban J. y Ray, D. (2004). Polarization: Concepts, Measurement, Estimation. Econometrica, 72(6), 1737-1772. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3598766
Foucault, M. (2003). Hay que defender la sociedad. Ediciones Akal.
Foucault, M. (2007). El nacimiento de la biopolítica. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Fraser, N. y Honneth, A. (2006). ¿Redistribucion o Reconocimiento? Morata.
Gayo, M. y Méndez, M.L. (2019). Upper middle class social reproduction: Wealth schooling and residential choice in Chile. Palgrave Pivote.
Gould, N. y Baldwin, M. (2004). Social Work, Critical Reflection and the Learning Organization. Routledge.
Hartmann, M. (2018). The international business elite. Myth or fiction? En Korsnes, O., Heilbron, J., Hjellbrekke, J., Bühlmann, F. y Savage, M. (eds). New directions in elite studies (pp. 31-46). Routledge.
Healy, K. (2018). Trabajo social. Perspectivas contemporáneas. Morata-Paideia.
Hellman, J., Jones, G. y Kaufmann, D. (2000). Captura el Estado, Capture el día: Captura del Estado, corrupción e influencia en la transición. Trabajo de Investigación de Políticas Públicas, 2444. Banco Mundial.
Hobsbawm, E. (2009). Guerra y paz en el siglo XXI. Crítica.
Joignant, A. (2011). The Politics of Technopols, Resources, Political Competence and Collective Leadership in Chile, 1990-2010. Journal of Latin American Studies, 43(3), 517-546. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X11000423
Khan, S. (2011). Privilege: The making of an adolescent elite at St. Paul's School. Princeton University Press.
Khan, S. (2012). Elite identities. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 19(4), 477– 484. https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2012.718713
Klein, N. (2015). Esto lo cambia todo. El capitalismo contra el clima. Paidós.
Korsnes, O., Heilbron, J., Hjellbrekke, J., Bühlmann, F. y Savage, M. (eds). New directions in elite studies (pp. 297-315). Routledge.
Lamont, M. y Molnár, V. (2002). The study of boundaries across the social sciences. Annual Review of Sociology, 28, 167-195. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.141107
Martin, J. (2008). Social workers as mediators. Australian Social Work, 53(4), 33-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/03124070008415219
Milanovic, B. (2017). Desigualdad mundial. Un nuevo enfoque para la era de la globalización. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Miliband, R. [1960] (1991). El Estado en la sociedad capitalista. Siglo XXI Ediciones.
Milner, M. (2015). Elites. A general model. Polity Books.
Mosca, G. [1934] (1984). La clase política. Fondo de Cultura económica.
Pareto, W. [1923] (1980). Forma y equilibrio sociales. Alianza Editorial
Parkin, F. (1979). The Marxist Theory of Class: A Bourgeois Critique. Tavistock.
Parton, N. (1996). Social theory, social change and social work. Routledge.
Piketty, T. (2014). El capital en el siglo XXI. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Piketty, T. (2020). Capital e ideología. Planeta.
Reay, D., Crozier, G. y Clayton, J. (2009). Strangers in Paradise? Working-class students in elite universities. Sociology, 43(6), 1103–1121. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038509345700
Savage, M. y Nichols, G. (2017). Theorizing elites in unequal times. Class, constellation and accumulation. En Korsnes, O., Heilbron, J., Hjellbrekke, J., Bühlmann, F. y Savage, M. (eds). New directions in elite studies (pp. 297-315). Routledge.
Sherman, R. (2017). Uneasy Street: The Anxieties of Affluence. Princeton University Press.
Stoeffler, S. (2019). Social Work and poverty: A critical examination of intersecting theories. Social Development Issues, 41(2):21-32.
Van Zanten, A., Ball, S. y Darchy-Koechlin, B. (2015) (eds.). Elites, privilege and excellence. The national and global redefinition of educational advantage. Routledge.
Veblen [1938] (2014). Teoría de la clase ociosa. Alianza Editorial.
Villalobos, C., Quaresma, M.L., & Roa-Infante, J. (2022). Estudiantes de clase baja en universidades de élite chilenas. Angustia, sacrificio y renuncia. Magis, Revista Internacional de Investigación en Educación, 15, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.m15.ecbu
Vivero-Arriagada, L. (2021). El trabajador Social como intelectual orgánico: Análisis a partir de la crisis histórico-política de Chile. O Social em Questão, 3(51). https://www.redalyc.org/journal/5522/552268238012/html/
Wagner, P. (2012). Modernity. Understanding the present. Policy Press.
Wright-Mills, C. (1960). The causes of World War Three. Ballantine Books.
Wright-Mills, C. [1956] (2005). La élite del poder. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Young, M. (1958). The rise of meritocracy. Pelican Books.
Zeitlin, M. y Ratcliff, R. (1971). Landlords & Capitalists. The dominant class of Chile. Princeton University Press.
