Women who are Mothers and Lives in Vulnerable Neighborhood: Constructed Meanings about the Possibilities of Facing this Social Condition

• Grant number: 22/15043-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: December 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Social Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Paula Soares da Silva
• Grantee: Natalliê Maçanário dos Santos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The advances of neoliberal policies in Brazil limit the State's role in social policies, and its discourse compels citizens to exercise self-management. In this context, people become more and more hyper-individualized, immersed in the culture of the self. In this culture, it becomes difficult for individuals to sustain an organized and collective response to the loss of rights, weakening community bonds. The space of the cities, in this context, prioritizes the interests of capital and limits the access of citizens to housing by the market value. The poorest people are displaced from the city centers to the peripheries, making housing the most visible form of class segregation. In the peripheries, the lack of infrastructure and public services favors the increase of poverty, characterizing a socio-spatial condition marked by an excluding and discriminatory socioeconomic model, producing conditions of social vulnerability. The analysis of social vulnerability considers several factors: market insertion and stability; social relations and community support; and access to public policies or other forms of social protection. It is essential to consider the conditioning factors of gender, race, and stage of the life cycle for this analysis. Women represents a peculiar group in poverty, since they are often characterized by a high dedication to unpaid activities and a lower level of economic autonomy. Another important conditioning factor in determining the incidence of poverty in families is the presence of children, especially between the ages of 0 and 6, which is related to the difficulty that these women mothers have in maintaining themselves in the labor market and the lack of access to especific public policies. This project aims to understand which senses and meanings about living in a neighborhood in a condition of social vulnerability and the possibilities of coping with this situation are produced by women with small children. Will participate in the research up to five women mothers of child(ren) from 0 to 6 years old, residents of the neighborhood Jardim Aeroporto - Ribeirão Preto (SP). The research is guided by the Historical-Dialectical Materialist perspective of research and by the theoretical referential of Cultural Historical Psychology. The empirical material will be built through: (1) Interviews with semi-structured scripts; (2) Mapping of the public or non-governmental services existing in the neighborhood for women residents; (3) Participant observation; (4) Construction of a Social-Environmental Reading of the neighborhood. Part of the material will come from the database of interviews with Community Leaders, Key Informants and Residents of a broader research entitled "Community psychosocial dynamics in Chile and Brazil: analysis of divergences and convergences in neighborhoods in conditions of social vulnerability", whose objective is to understand the particularities and similarities of community psychosocial dynamics in vulnerable neighborhoods of the city of Ribeirão Preto- SP/ Brazil and Temuco/ Chile (FAPESP Process 2019/13305-0). The data will be analyzed based on the proposal called Nuclei of Meaning, in order to elucidate the dialectical process of apprehension of the meanings produced by women mothers.