Dariela Sharim Kovalskys’s research while affiliated with Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and other places

One of the fields of social work where the clinical approach is highly relevant is family intervention. In the case of Chile, such intervention mainly occurs in programs for prevention, repair, and protection of children and their families. However, while family support programs have been extensively studied in Anglo-Saxon countries, yielding valuable information that has allowed for the adaptation of intervention models and the improvement of services provided, studies in this area and linked to the protection system are scarce in Chile. This qualitative longitudinal research aims to analyze the practice with families carried out by social workers to assess the extent to which the clinical approach is deployed within such practice and what would be required to advance in greater legitimacy. For eleven months, six dyads formed by a social worker and a family caregiver were followed. Data were collected both at the documentary level, with an in-depth analysis of the reports issued to courts, and at the level of empirical collection through observation, in-depth interviews, discussion groups, and session-to-session interviews. Finally, a thematic analysis was conducted. The results show that the clinical approach of social work in Chile is present in practice, but further training is required to advance its consolidation and legitimacy. It is observed that interventions that reach a higher level of reflexivity are those that would facilitate greater subjective change than those of an exclusively socio-educational nature. This could impact the relevance of Clinical Social Work in the field of child protection. Then, challenges for training and the relevance of a relational-collaborative, contextual-anti-oppressive, and feminist perspective are discussed to facilitate new paths of transformation where families are considered experts in their own lives.

Las familias que son derivadas al sistema de protección infantil en Chile han enfrentado diversas exclusiones sociales y han ingresado repetidamente al sistema, lo que genera dificultades específicas al momento de brindar un apoyo efectivo cuando son derivadas por una causa de vulneración de derechos. Este artículo tiene como objetivo revelar cómo un foco en la relación terapéutica puede contribuir a la intervención familiar. Para lograr esto, analizaremos qué factores relacionales pueden facilitar u obstaculizar la alianza terapéutica entre trabajadores sociales y familias de niños y niñas que asisten al sistema de protección. Nuestro estudio es de naturaleza longitudinal, y consistió en seguir a seis díadas de trabajadora social-cuidadora durante 11 meses utilizando diversas técnicas cualitativas. Se encontraron factores que cobran distinta relevancia dependiendo del momento de la intervención. Algunos de los factores facilitadores identificados incluyen una actitud libre de juicio, empatía, una comprensión relacional de los problemas, crear un sentido de seguridad en el espacio terapéutico, estregar credibilidad, separar a la persona del problema y lograr un equilibrio entre el control y la relación de ayuda. Entre los factores obstaculizadores está el no proveer claridad del rol de la trabajadora social o de la frecuencia de la relación, el uso de un lenguaje técnico y no informar a las familias de los reportes o el proceso judicial. El artículo concluye con un análisis de los resultados, recomendaciones para la formación de trabajadoras sociales y futuras líneas de investigación.

This paper discusses the subjective identity processes produced in the transnational migration experience through the concept of interstitial identities. To illustrate the uses of this concept, a case built from life stories, in-depth interviews, and photo stories is analyzed. Thus, Maria is identified, a skilled Brazilian immigrant in Santiago de Chile, who chooses to descend from the upper to low socioeconomic class in the destination country to construct herself as the subject of her history. In addition, it reflects on the processuality of their identities and on the identity negotiations that she establishes in the interstice between different cultural configurations she relates transnationally, in which gender and class are relevant categories. Finally, it is concluded that thinking about the migratory experience from interstitial identities does not allow to build identity typologies but to explore the articulations between subject and culture in migration.

This paper presents a qualitative study carried out with young people from four excluded neighborhoods in Santiago de Chile: La Legua, José María Caro, Lo Hermida and Los Robles. The methodological design involved a variety of data production techniques, allowing us to identify the subjective narratives of their inhabitants, as well as the external perceptions of the neighborhoods. Results suggest that the subjective (or 'from inside') perceptions of young people from excluded neighborhoods incorporate the structural inequality that afflicts them, but they are also critical of this reading, as well as the spatial stigmas imputed to them, qualifying such classifications with biographical experiences associated with positive feelings in their neighborhoods. The paper concludes that the concept of excluded neighborhood requires a dialectic articulation between subjectivity and society, or between an internal and external outlook, in order to open new directions for social change.

En el presente artículo, se analiza el proceso de relocalización, realizado por el Estado, de un grupo de damnificados por el mega-incendio de la ciudad de Valparaíso de Chile el año 2014. A partir de un enfoque cualitativo (relatos de vida y observación participante), se busca demostrar cómo este desastre constituye, para las familias afectadas, un doble trauma: por una parte, el incendio desestabiliza formas de vida consolidadas por años en los cerros de Valparaíso; por otra parte, el Estado, mediante el proceso de relocalización, genera un segundo trauma en los afectados, en la medida que reduce la experiencia vivida a la entrega de viviendas sociales, lo que es percibido por la comunidad como un abandono. A este proceso, lo caracterizamos como el paso del protagonismo- personas pobres que viven en precarias condiciones pasan a ser relevantes para el Estado en tanto damnificados- a la denegación, es decir, a la negación de la validez y veracidad de la experiencia a través de la relocalización postdesastre.

Immigration is one of the defining features of our time and calls into question processes of the construction of identity in relation to the experience of belonging and ties to space, territory and social worlds. This paper presents the perspectives of 14 Colombian immigrants regarding their lives in Santiago, analyzing how some features of the space make cultural trends and particular ways of dwelling visible. Santiago plays the role of the main character in their narratives, as it illustrates, reflects and participates in the construction of social issues. The article discusses how moving beyond localisms and incorporating a peripheral perspective can contribute to adding dynamism and depth to the understanding of social cohesion.

Este artículo presenta y discute los resultados de un estudio cualitativo desarrollado en Chile, que exploró y analizó las significaciones atribuidas por migrantes colombianos adultos a sus experiencias. Se utilizaron relatos de vida y creaciones visuales para producir datos. Los resultados evidenciaron la pluralidad de significaciones en torno a la migración, así como el proceso continuo de elaboración y evaluación que supone dar sentido a la experiencia, pues esta revela la naturaleza contingente de la identidad, el estilo de vida y las prácticas culturales. Los participantes tendieron a significar positivamente su experiencia migratoria, pero evidenciaron la presión por salir adelante con base en sus propios recursos, caracterizando la migración como proyecto inherentemente personal, reflejando tendencias culturales a la individualización social.