Paper Short Abstract:

Based on my experience as a teacher of Social Anthropology in the Social Work degree at the University of Granada, I formulate reflections and proposals aimed at better conveying the tools of the discipline and its critical/deconstructive potential to future social workers.

Paper Abstract:

These reflections are based on my experience as a teacher of Social Anthropology in the Social Work degree at the University of Granada.

It is a mandatory course within a degree with a strong orientation towards social intervention, and with the presence of different disciplines from the Social Sciences, many of which are characterized by more normative, legal, or “positivist” epistemologies (in a broad sense).

One of the main expectations of students regarding this course is that it provides them with an exhaustive knowledge of the different “cultural characteristics” of service users, with the aim of carrying out a “better” and “more effective” social intervention. Adopting an essentialist notion of culture, the emphasis is placed on the "Other(s)" – the marginalized, racialized, impoverished Other(s) - and their specific characteristics, with the result of undermining both the relational element of the Construction of Otherness and the existence of power relations and deeper structural dynamics that condition the interaction between social intervention professionals and service users.

How can we break with the epistemological assumptions implicit in such expectations? How can we convey to the class the deeper and more critical contribution of Social Anthropology?

This communication, based on my own teaching experience, emphasizes the importance of the emotional/affective dimension for the teaching/learning process; in fact, far from opposing the cognitive dimension, emotions and affects constitute a necessary complement to it. To illustrate this relationship, I draw on concrete examples of dynamics, dramatizations, musical performances, and other "hybrid" teaching tools developed in the classes.