ANDRADE, Aurea Andrade Viana deRUFINO, José Divaldo2026-05-182026-05-182026-05-182026-03-11https://repositorio.unespar.edu.br/handle/123456789/988This research examines the quality of services provided by the Social Assistance Reference Centre (CRAS), understood as a synthesising characteristic analysed through the perspectives and power dynamics operating within the territory. The study presents the main quality attributes identified in similar research, highlighting effectiveness as the attribute with the greatest potential to synthesize and distinguish CRAS services from other public services, while simultaneously reaching citizens as beneficiaries. The outcomes delivered during and after the implementation of the PAIF (Comprehensive Family Protection and Assistance Service) and the SCFV (Socialisation and Bond-Strengthening Service) are of interest to the different actors involved. Although official regulations assign five distinct objectives to these services, in practice other functions are observed, including responding to multiple demands, which reflects the legacy of welfare-based assistance. Which objective prevails depends on who benefits and at what moment, although regulations emphasize the strengthening of family, community and social bonds as the primary outcome. This strengthening is linked to social participation and the promotion of citizenship, in line with the research strand Human Development, Public Policies and the Production of Space of the Program, and is oriented towards mediating the emergence and/or development of protection networks through shared socio-territorial governance. The study enabled an understanding of the main concepts and attributes related to the quality of CRAS services from the perspectives of service users, practitioners and managers, as well as an analysis of how territorial power dynamics influence these choices. A qualitative and interdisciplinary methodology was adopted, using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews conducted at CRAS units in Alto Paraná, Guairaçá and Terra Rica, located in areas of high social vulnerability in north-western Paraná, Brazil. The data were analyzed using thematic content analysis, grounded in the frameworks of social assistance policy and the specialized literature. Service users and practitioners diverged regarding the importance and meanings attributed to quality attributes, with variations observed between interviews, structured questionnaires and different user profiles. Participants engaged in PAIF collective actions and/or SCFV activities, older adults, and residents of Terra Rica were those who most recognized the contributions of CRAS services to family, community and social relations, indicating that quality is a relative and relational concept. Practitioners attributed greater importance to attributes associated with resistance to welfare-based assistance, which remains present in everyday practice through political referrals. The identified power dynamics were largely restricted to actors involved in the daily operation of CRAS and its users, particularly the family and religious institutions. A limited number of nodes were observed in the social (dis)protection network articulated by CRAS, indicating an institutionally small territory that, in order to strengthen community and social bonds, needs to expand and mediate power dynamics beyond the practitioner-user relationship, access to rights, and the provision of income and material support.Qualidade dos serviços, poder, território, CRAS, InterdisciplinarDissertaçãoInterdisciplinar