Identity-labor interpellations: Social work or socio-technical work?

Abstract

The social policies inspired by the New Public Management (NMP) are producing new subjectifications in the professions. Taking social work as a case study, the present article questions the interpretive repertoires related to the identity interpellations deployed in different policies social protection from the discourse analysis proposal of Potter & Wetherell. As a result, six discursive axes emerge, which symbolize an action limited and conditioned by quantifications, accountability, technologies, new materializations and less interactions with subjects and communities. The socio-technical configuration of those policies identifies social work in terms of training and its exercise in these work settings.