Elderly People, Covid-19, and Unequal Urban Contexts: Documentating and Analyzing Social Impacts of the Pandemic through Oral History

• Grant number: 21/11614-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: March 01, 2022
• End date: May 21, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Santhiago Corrêa
• Grantee: Lívia Morais Garcia Lima
• Host Institution: Instituto das Cidades. Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Zona Leste. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to investigate in depth the social impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the elderly population. We will focus on the understanding of situations of vulnerability, problems faced by this group and worsened in different levels, using oral history and drawing on experiences of elderly people in São Paulo's peripheral regions. Thus, this proposal, both in thematic and methodological terms, speaks to my trajectory as a researcher, consisting in an opportunity to unfold, continue, and deep our work in what regards to oral history, to the dynamics of aging, and to rural and urban studies. Employing oral history, it will be possible to analyze the memory work of the interviewees - narrative choices referring to the ways in which they elaborate their present time experiences within the context of the pandemic, aiming to devise their autobiographical reports drawing on their temporal connections between past, present and future expectations. Each interview will bring dialogic constructions (interviewers/interviewees), focusing on the reporting of individual experiences that have acquired collective relevance, based on themes such as: changes in labor relations, health, leisure and affections, among other challenges in the daily life of these subjects. The research will disseminate its results to academic peers and to the wider public, through a set of strategies that includes writings, public programs, and participation in scientific meetings.