Social Work and citizen participation in social policy making

Abstract

Nowadays, when the economic crisis keeps creating new breaches of social exclusion andpoverty, in some European countries, among which is Spain, the convenience of intensifying the proactive dimension of Social Work in designing social policies in social services is being suggested. The intention is to increase their effectiveness by means of the continuous adjustment of these policies to the complexity of the social necessities of each situation and, in addition, to favour their social legitimacyby means of citizen participation, which will promote shared intelligence of the social agents involved in such processes. In order to achieve this, the ways to follow will be detected from the description ofsome key points about the current exigencies of social work, avoiding possible risks in the quality of professional intervention facing the rise in the demand and the scarcity of economic resources. It will be equally necessary to identify and explain new and innovative modalities of intervention which mean a desirable evolution, from the appreciative focus, which values the possibilities of people, groups and communities and the desirable achievements to pursue through positive interactions.