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Our era is marked by globalization, which privileges universalist tendencies, and which at the same time tolerates being in charge of one’s life that makes headlines in every area (economics, consumption, biology, genetics and other sciences, justice, and social work). Do these two contemporary trends (the universalist wave and being in charge of one’s life) leave room for institutional specificities in social work and for differences in professional structure? More specifically, they appear as a restraint for systemic working models, which are concerned about complexity, non-prediction criteria, “letting go,” sharing responsibilities, and about human abilities in a democratic context. An approach closer to mutualism may be an alternative solution to escape the contradictions caused by these two dominating trends. The recruitment process for a non-institutional education training team will be used to illustrate these points.