Analysis of public policy formulation and its effect on the technical and professional work of the community psychologist: A case study.

The academic and professional relationship between Community Psychology and public policy is increasing, especially as pertaining to social issues. An important discussion is to be had regarding the complexity, degrees of complementarity, and contributions of this link, as well as its risks for the discipline of Community Psychology. In this context, this study asks the following question: What are the dynamics of public policy formulation for extreme poverty in Chile and its effect on the technical definition of the psychologists' work, and what alternatives this opens up for a discussion on the relationship between Community Psychology and public policies? A qualitative and idiographic methodological approach is used, based on Grounded Theory by Strauss & Corbin (2002) and the Case Study by Coller (2000), to analyze semistructured interviews with 10 policymakers of the Chile Seguridades y Oportunidades policy and nine legislative and technical documents that support this policy. The results show that the technical work of the psychologist who participates in public policy towards extreme poverty is affected and configured by the mechanisms and dynamics of the connection between the various frameworks of meaning of policy formulation. These frames of meaning affect the configuration of technical norms that, in a dynamic of reciprocal influence between notions of reference, notions of problem and notions of solution, affect and configure the professional tasks of the psychologists, in terms of the focus of their work, their objectives, levels of intervention and interdisciplinary work.