Objetividade e subjetividade no trabalho social: os profissionais de arquitetura nas Assessorias e Assistência Técnica para Habitação de Interesse Social (ATHIS), em São Luís (MA)

Abstract

In housing policy, social work aims to improve living conditions and fully realize the right to the city. In São Luís, Maranhão, this kind of work is carried out largely disconnected from the municipal housing policy, led by autonomous professionals, advisory groups, and popular architecture and urban planning collectives. In this context, the present research analyzes the social work of architects engaged in Technical Assistance and Advisory Services for Social Housing (ATHIS), based on concrete experiences developed in the capital city, articulating the objective and subjective dimensions of professional practice with the centrality of labor. The study explores the intrinsic and dialectical relationship between objectivity and subjectivity through the organization of labor; the ethical and social role of architects in housing policy; and the conditions and experiences under which social work in architecture unfolds in São Luís. Methodologically, the research is grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, combining bibliographic and documentary review with field research, involving seven professionals engaged in advisory and ATHIS projects. It concludes that social work in this field occurs under adverse objective conditions: a restricted job market, limited institutional support from public authorities, absence of municipal strategies and legal instruments for the implementation of Law 11.888/2008, widespread public unawareness of ATHIS, and frequent self-financing of activities by the professionals themselves. Despite this, subjectivity plays a central role in professional engagement with grassroots and resistance-oriented technical-social projects, highlighting the ethical, political, and pedagogical dimensions of architecture and urban planning.