Abstract

The social worker builds his working identity through his commitment to serve excluded populations with the aim to take part in their welfare improvement. This working identity acts on his attention on the world. Therefore, his personal identity is affected in his development by the art of doing. When relations with hierarchy, people or institutional environment fail, how is this professional identity perceived by the social worker and how is his own personal identity growing in time? The analysis of stories of social workers’ practices, who had suffered because of working situations, reveals close links between social worker, institution and people helped. The affective nature of the links that emerge from the art of doing stands out through the three poles and then plays an important role in the social worker’s identity development.