A política de assistência social sobre a perspectiva dos sujeitos: a experiência dos usuários do CRAS de Juiz de Fora/MG

Abstract

Nowadays, the execution of social assistance as a public social policy and social rights is still a challenge to be faced. In general, the ruling classes are renewing their domination strategies, and the social protection appears as a legitimation of power tool and as an imposition of interests. At the same time, it represented the tension of working class struggle for recognition of their needs. This dissertation proposes to perform an analysis about the understanding of the agents and users of social assistance policy regarding this subject. The theoretical and methodological approaches used in our study seek to emphasize the place that these users occupy in capitalist relations as lower classes, highlighting the particularities of the Brazilian socio-historical formation and the expansion of social policies, revealing the dispute between two national projects : the first one linked with the expansion of social rights, as well as its universalization, and another one emphasizing on the deepening of the neoliberal model of reduction of state intervention in the social area. We develop a theoretical research about the categories that were needed to understand our object and a field survey in three Social Assistance Reference Centres (Centros de Referência de Assistência Social – CRAS), the city of Juiz de Fora/ MG. The main objective of our study is to identify how users understand and perceive the actions of the social assistance policy in their lives and their families, as well as to analyze the changes that the assisted condition of these actions achieved. The field research was composed of 60 observations, and it was conducted with the members of the research group entitled "Social Services and Unified Social Assistance in Juiz de Fora: An analysis from social workers and users of SUAS" – founded by CNPq and UFJF – is coordinated by Professor Carina Berta Moljo and it includes the participation of other student of master's degree in Social Work, undergraduate research students and undergraduate professional training from the same university, and six interviews with users of the three reference centers. The results show the challenges for professionals working in this area, mainly concerning the need to better know this user and the particularlies that compose its universe, in order to seek proposals that actually achieve their needs and desires to execute the social care policy as a social right.