Antonio Gramsci´S Contribution Towards the Construction of the Critical Perspective of Social Service

Abstract

The Italian communist philosopher Antonio Gramsci started to criticize Mussolini´s Fascism when he perceived faults in the functioning of the Italian Communist party. Criticism sent him to prison where he wrote his chief works. Current analysis establishes the role of the author with regard to the human being´s emancipation as a bearer of social rights and the importance of the philosopher´s role in the formation of the social assistant. Gramsci acknowledged the importance of structural factors, especially in Economics, although he did not believe that such factors would cause the revolt of the masses. He perceived that that the task would be highly difficult for a revolutionary in Italy to convince the victims of repression of what they were capable of doing. Gramsci developed a theory that would supplement Marxist theory with special reference to cultural hegemony in which the basic repression elements would not be economical but cultural. When he verified that the link between thought and action was the fundamental base of the philosophy of praxis or Marxism, he defined hegemony as the cultural leadership of the ruling classes. Current analysis showed that the formation of social assistants failed to define a political and social conscience to interfere in social issues and there was a deficiency with regard to classes´ conscience. Frequently this led to alienated practices that favored the submission of the working class and consequently the strengthening of the hegemony of the dominating bourgeoisie class. A parallel was thus drawn between the author´s thought and the construction of the professional identity of social service. In fact, in the history of this profession, the ruling class had always profited from the former practice to maintain hegemony and power on the subaltern class. Under Gramsci´s influence, human beings are considered independent, critical and subjects of their own history