Contradições da área sociojurídica: uma análise da instrumentalidade do Serviço Social no Ministério Público do Estado da Bahia

Abstract

This dissertation aims primarily to analyze the contradictions inherent to the socio-legal field and their impacts on the work of social workers within the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Bahia (MPBA), through the lens of the instrumental dimension of Social Work. The secondary objectives include: a) discussing the instrumental dimension of Social Work in the socio-legal field; b) investigating the specificities of the social worker’s practice within the MPBA; and c) identifying the particularities of social work in this institutional context, especially in light of conservative influences and their implications for the professional ethicalpolitical project. The research is grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, which enables a critical reflection on bourgeois sociability and its contradictions within the socio-historical movement of social reality. This is a qualitative, exploratory study. The main data collection method involved semi-structured interviews conducted via the digital platform ConferênciaWeb with social workers from the MPBA. Data were analyzed using content analysis, supported by literature review and document analysis. The research revealed that the work of social workers in the MPBA is marked by contradictions and ambiguities – at times aligned with public policy surveillance, the judicialization of social issues, and the criminalization of poverty; at other times enabling the realization of social rights, particularly collective and individual rights. Additionally, the presence of conservative ideological remnants in the MPBA can be observed, influencing how social workers address reality, often resulting in fragmented, punctual, and functionalist responses. Nonetheless, the findings confirm that the social workers operating in the socio-legal field within the MPBA are aligned with the social direction of the professional ethical-political project, defending human rights and the universalization of historically acquired social rights. It is concluded that the instrumental dimension of Social Work equips professionals with the technical-scientific capacity to critically analyze social reality, enabling them to break away from merely technical, fragmented, and punctual practices.