Marxian Political Legacy

Social Meaning of Scientific Knowledge for the Student Movement in Social Work

Abstract

With the text that follows, the objective is to reaffirm the relevance of the thought of Marx and Engels still in the 21st century, as well as to situate their theoretical-methodological conceptions as a political legacy for the general struggles of workers around the world, among which they place up those fought by the Brazilian social service student movement. The reflections proposed here were systematized from investigations developed in a discipline of a postgraduate program in Social Work, articulated to the theme of a completed course conclusion work, the result of a research that unfolds in a master's project in progress. The debate is introduced with a generalist contextualization on the contemporary dynamics of capitalist society, a terrain in which the socio-political direction of production, socialization and appropriation of knowledge in the arena of class struggle is developed and disputed. The text presents approximate elements in the debate about the social meaning of scientific knowledge in Social Work, especially with regard to its connection and claim to critical social theory as a theoretical framework. The conclusive notes ratify the Marxian theory as a political legacy for the endorsement of the critical social direction of the profession, with emphasis on the struggles carried out by the student social service movement. These struggles also constitute the history of the general student movement, in the context of democratic clashes and revolutionary leadership held in Brazilian territory.