Conference Program

The research examines the transformation of Masters in Social Work as a critical lens through which to observe the tensions of contemporary professionalism in neoliberal times.
The study investigates how welfare transformations, marked by economic constraints and rising social complexity, retroact upon professional training, shaping the potential for either democratic engagement or institutional domination within public services.

Grounded in debates on the evolution of professionalism and its shift from traditional occupational models toward organizational and hybrid forms (Cataldi, Tomatis, 2024), the research addresses two questions:
1) What trends characterize advanced social work education across European welfare regimes?
2) What are the professional-training needs of Italian Master’s programs in Social Work?
Through a dual-level methodology, a macro-level documentary analysis of 18 European Master's programs in Politics and Social Work, complemented by a comprehensive overview of the Italian LM-87 class, and a meso-level analysis of 12 semi-structured interviews with Piedmontese public and third-sector stakeholders, the study provides situated understanding of how professional education responds to neoliberal pressures.

The European mapping confirms the impossibility of a uniform training model, revealing how Masters’ curricula are shaped by the architecture of different welfare regimes (Laging, Žganec, 2021). The Italian landscape presents a fragmented picture, characterized by four main specialization axes: service governance, social policy design, innovation, and research.
This richness conceals risks of potential fragmentation of professional identity, an economistic drift that subordinates social rights to managerial logics, and a structural territorial divide that reproduces the country's socio-economic inequalities (Cellini, Dellavalle, 2022).

The findings resonate with the interrogation of professionalism under neoliberal governance.
The economistic drift identified in curricula reflects the penetration of managerialist logics into professional education, a key feature of post-democratic transformations where technical-administrative rationality displaces political contestation over social rights.
The fragmentation of professional identity threatens the collective capacity of social workers to act as a countervailing force against institutional violence and discriminatory welfare practices.

Stakeholder interviews reveal a perception of identity crisis within Master's-level education, suspended between specialist intervention training and process manager formation (Cellini, Scavarda, 2020).
This tension mirrors broader debates on whether professionalism can function as a vehicle for democratic renewal (Touijn, Dellavalle, 2017) or instead becomes complicit in authoritarian forms of governance through depoliticized technical expertise. The educational dimension inherent in professional practice acquires particular significance: curricula shape not only technical competencies but also cognitive orientations toward citizenship, rights, and the public good.

The research contributes to understanding how professional education might foster resistance against neoliberal authoritarianism. Findings indicate the necessity of training that integrates critical policy analysis and contextual advocacy tools that enable professionals to navigate the tensions between managerial “efficiency” and democratic responsiveness.
By illuminating the polarities characterizing Master's-level education and its relationship with the professional field, the study provides a foundation for rethinking how social work professionalism might be reclaimed as a democratic practice, capable of countering the multiple forms of counterintuitive and discriminatory welfare that characterize contemporary post-democratic conditions.