De l'assistance au developpement social : les modes de legitimation de l'action publique
Institution:
Paris, EHESSDisciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
The thesis analyses the evolution of social work in france from 1945 to the 1990s it replaces social work in the context of social welfare and relates it to the actual confrontation between the welfare state and the liberal model. It is shown that social work has two mains objectives : the management of marginalized and unemployed populations, and the empowerment of individuals and groups. In a first part, the historical evolution of social work is recounted, through the three branches of social service, special education and approved school, and socio-cultural activities. There is a focus on the breakdown of the mid 1970s with the reemergence of social policies, often taking the form of a decentralisation at a local level. In a second part, it is argued that the theme of sociological integration means a reconsideration of social problems and their connection to the issues of employment and social insurance. This may lead to a displacement of the social question : the theme of exclusion leads to propose as secondary, objectives such as the reduction of inequalities. In a third part, the focus is on professions and the way they are affected by the changes in public action. The conditions of practice of social professions are deeply transformed, with changes in positions, jobs and labor markets. However, the skills used by social workers still revolve around three mains logics : (i) the symbolic production of social links; (ii) a tactic dimension of interventions; and (iii) a strong reference to concrete and actual situations. Finally, the reflexion broadens to the modes of legitimization of public action. Three lines of thought are compared : hermeneutics, the pragmatic point of view on the production of democratic consensus, and a paradigm inspired by foucault, which insists on the competition between forms of government and types of rationalities. On these analysis, the thesis concludes to the necessary construction of a sociological paradigm that should be able to include the question of language as an essential dimension of the construction of identities.
Abstract FR:
La these analyse la construction du travail social en france de 1945 aux annees 1990, en le replacant dans l'ensemble de la protection sociale et dans les enjeux actuels de la confrontation entre l'etat social et le modele liberal. Elle montre que le travail social met en oeuvre une double strategie : gestion des populations hors-travail et emancipation des individus et des groupes. Elle retrace d'abord l'evolution du travail social a travers les trois branches du service social, de l'education specialisee et de l'animation socioculturelle et analyse la rupture du milieu des annees 1970 avec la thematique de la pauvrete et la reconstruction des politiques sociales autour du local. Puis elle montre que le theme de l'insertion forme une nouvelle problematisation du social articulee aux questions du travail et de la protection sociale. Elle s'interroge sur les deplacements de la question sociale quand le theme de l'exclusion se substitue au projet de reduction des inegalites. Elle analyse ensuite les professionnalites soumises a ces evolutions de l'action publique. On assiste a une transformation des conditions d'exercice des metiers sociaux : modification des postes, des emplois et des marches du travail. Mais les competences mises en oeuvre par les professionnels restent construites autour d'une triple logique : production symbolique du lien social, dimension tactique des interventions, inscription dans "l'ici et maintenant" des situations. Enfin la reflexion s'elargit aux modes de legitimation de l'action publique en croisant le point de vue hermeneutique, le point de vue pragmatique de la production du consensus democratique et celui issu de michel foucault, qui montre la concurrence des formes de gouvernement et de rationalite. De ces analyses, la these conclut a la necessaire construction d'un paradigme sociologique capable d'integrer la question du langage en tant que dimension essentielle de la construction des identites.