Pandemic and Social Work in Chile: Precarity, Precariousness and the Quest for Resistance in an Uncertain World

In Chile, the Covid-19 pandemic overlapped with a socio-political crisis that arose in response to the neoliberal model imposed during Pinochet's dictatorship. Social workers have been key to addressing the multiple vulnerabilities the population has faced during the political uprising and pandemic. From a critical perspective that analyses precarity, precariousness and resistance as a continuum, this article examines SWs' employment and intervention conditions during the pandemic and the resistances that have emerged in this context. Drawing upon a mixed sequential study that included an online survey (N = 872) and forty-two semi-structured (online) interviews, we identified that precarity and precariousness affecting professional interventions have persisted. However, findings indicate that (i) younger and less educated frontline SWs were most affected by worsening employment conditions; (ii) the shift towards tele-intervention has not only led to transformations in professional roles but also in the emergence of new surveillance mechanisms and (iii) new types of professional resistances emerged that have been identified as individual and spontaneous but nevertheless explicit in nature. We conclude that the pandemic and the on-going political crisis present social work with an opportunity to advocate for dignified working conditions as well as changing the historical subordinate position of the profession. center dot In Chile, the Covid-19 pandemic has developed within a socio-political crisis and subsequent constitutional change. This article analyses the employment conditions of social workers (SWs) and the resistance practices that have emerged in response to precarity (sense of fragility) and precariousness (structural conditions that strengthen and uphold fragility) during the pandemic. A sequential quantitative qualitative mixed study was undertaken that included and online survey (N=872) and forty-two semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate: center dot Younger SWs, with less education and those on the front-lines experience greater precarity and precariousness; center dot Tele-interventions have modified the professional role and have led to new forms of vigilance of professional practice; center dot SWs practice resistances that although are explicit in nature remain individual. center dot Precarity and precariousness are closely related during professional practice during the pandemic. Nevertheless, the sense of fragility (precarity) does not lead individual SWs to form coalitions or collaborations with others that would allow for collective forms of resistance with regard to precarious employment conditions. center dot These findings pose new challenges for social work: advocating for better employment conditions and articulating collective resistances through professional organisations and social movements.