La intervención social en la extrema pobreza y neoliberalismo. Tensiones entre la reproducción de la vida en mínimos biológicos y la activación de los “beneficiarios”

This article seeks to generate contributions around Social Work, intervention and power relations that are put into play, particularly problematizing some tensions that are present in professional practice aimed at extreme poverty under neoliberal governmentality. In order to present a particular case in Uruguay, the focus is on the intervention strategies developed by operators of the Referral Office, a service of the Ministry of Social Development. The intervention strategies are developed from arecognition of the possible for the beneficiary population, so that their characteristics, limitations and scope are presented as an adequate space to account for the ways in which power crosses social relations in the intervention.