Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects on the opportunities provided by ethnography to social work intervention and on the resistance institutions may develop to the critical stances generated by in-depth reflexive observation of intervention processes.

Paper long abstract:

When considering social work intervention, ethnography rightly presents a double feature: (i) as an operative instrument of social worker (since it deems to be used in data collection for social diagnosis; allows a closer connection between social workers and their clients and/or communities; permits a more intricate knowledge of institutional dynamics; it also may contribute to intervention assessment through the collection and analysis of qualitative indicators) and (ii) useful in the context of problem definition as well as for reflecting about the social issues subject of intervention.

In either case, ethnography entails the dismounting of institutional processes, intervention frames and goals - a condition not always welcome by institutions devoted to social intervention, since it leads to the adoption of critical stances about current proceedings and, eventually, to redefine operational trends. As such, in between the ideal presentation of ethnography and its practical appropriation in social work intervention lays a paradox. This paper explores such paradoxical circumstances, drawing from the supervision of two social work training internships in distinct Portuguese NGO's (AMI's homeless street social work team, in Oporto, and Mundos de Vida's residence for the elderly, in Vila Nova de Famalicão). Both experiences offer an opportunity to think about the ways ethnography provides critical reflections on social work intervention processes and how it can participate in the formulation or redefinition of social work operative devices.