APPROACHES AND CONCEPTIONS OF THE TERRITORY:

DIALOGUES BETWEEN GEOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL ASSISTANCE

Abstract

The social assistance was included in the Federal Constitution of 1988 as one of the pillars of the social security system and subsequently was marked in the history of the political struggle for the construction of the Organic Law of Social Assistance, approved in 1993. After 2003 it is institutionally strengthened with the establishment of the National Social Assistance Policy (PNAS), adopted in 2004. The territory, law, becomes the reference unit for development and combating poverty. Of Geography, especially in the late twentieth century onwards, the territorial approach acquires theoretical and methodological substance in studies on the role of social and power relations in space production processes. In this sense, this article seeks to reveal the different approaches and conceptions of territory in the Brazilian Geography in order to deepen dialogue with professionals as social workers and contribute towards the critical debate gleaming raising the effectiveness of the PNAS.