The challenges of contemporary child welfare practice are well documented in many countries worldwide. The current study enhances this work by reporting the lived experiences of child welfare workers in Chile, who negotiate their practice in a strained political and organisational context. A qualitative methodology was used to understand the complexities of the survival strategies of these workers. Data were collected via multiple individual interviews and group workshop sessions with six workers of different Chilean National Service for Minors’ collaborating organisations. Through a constructivist grounded theory analysis, we identify three major complexities that shape and construct the strategies of survival that the Chilean child welfare workers deploy in a neo-liberalised labour context: (1) Surviving a violent labour context (precariousness and dehumanisation); (2) surviving labour ambiguities (fractures and resistance) and (3) surviving oneself (pain-filled and violence executors’ bodies). We discuss these findings in the context of the scholarly literature and offer implications for policy and macro practice to alter the work conditions of this professional field.

中文翻译：

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暴力、模糊和自我的生存：智利儿童保护工作者的经验

当代儿童福利实践面临的挑战在世界许多国家都有详细记录。目前的研究通过报告智利儿童福利工作者的生活经历来加强这项工作，他们在紧张的政治和组织背景下谈判他们的实践。使用定性方法来了解这些工人生存策略的复杂性。数据是通过对不同智利国家未成年人服务合作组织的六名工作人员进行多次个人访谈和小组研讨会收集的。通过建构主义扎根理论分析，我们确定了塑造和构建智利儿童福利工作者在新自由化劳动环境中部署的生存策略的三个主要复杂性：（1）在暴力劳动环境（不稳定和非人化）中生存；(2) 生存的劳动模糊性（骨折和抵抗）和（3）生存自身（充满痛苦和暴力的执行者的身体）。我们在学术文献的背景下讨论这些发现，并为改变该专业领域的工作条件的政策和宏观实践提供启示。