Professioni di confine. Indagine sulla ridefinizione del lavoro sociale

This empirical contribution analyses the recent reforms of public social work and asylum seekers’ reception, aiming at interpreting their impact on social workers. We identified two case studies in the Municipality of Rome, a one stop shop for social services (PUA) and an asylum seekers’ reception centre (CAS), and enquired the increasing pressure exerted on workers by the performance-based approach to service management and by the reshaping of their role into controllers of social behaviours. Workers’ capability of being advocate of users’ needs seems to be confined to individualised spaces of autonomy, yet sustained by workers’ professional, moral and political values.