The knowledge of technology in the management of the social field: functions and justifications. Critical approach based on the Uruguayan case.

Abstract

The essay aims to discuss the functions of technological knowledge in social management, and the premises that justify its performance as a solution to social problems linked, specifically, to poverty. In the social field, technological knowledge has gained a recognized place of performance with respect to its technical potential for the development of solutions in the field of social assistance policy; Based on the supposed neutrality they carry, the instrumental and symbolic functions they perform constitute the bases of their legitimation as expert knowledge capable of offering “optimal” solutions. This impulse is related to local conditions of possibility, but also to the role of international organizations in the development of public policy; his statements regarding the premises that States should follow to address social problems, and the strategies to make their reform programs work. The reflection from the Uruguayan case on the trajectory of technological knowledge in the social field in the first decades of the 21st century, allows us to identify the devices and mechanisms with technological supports that define modalities and criteria for the assignment of social services, which have in turn, modeling effects on professional practices historically linked to care and the execution of social policies.