Grandmothers who "raise": generation, care and income in precarious contexts

• Grant number: 23/08500-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Guita Grin Debert
• Grantee: Natália Helou Fazzioni
• Host Institution: Núcleo de Estudos de Gênero (PAGU). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The project aims to understand family arrangements in which grandmothers are responsible for the daily care of their school-age grandchildren. The scope of the research is justified because, despite the numerous contextual differences, studies on grandparenting have pointed to a global demographic pattern in which the relationship time between grandparents and grandchildren has grown all over the world, considering the increase in life expectancy of the general population and other factors. It is also observed that in countries like Brazil, multigenerational households have grown, revealing a process of verticalization of families and greater coexistence between different generations. The project, therefore, seeks to look at the specificities of the relationships between grandmothers and grandchildren in slum areas in the city of Rio de Janeiro and inspired by the intersections between class, race and gender, it seeks to understand the relationships of care, income and generation resulting from these arrangements. Based on an ethnographic approach, the aim is to follow the itineraries of these families, seeking to understand how they are organized daily and the relationships they establish with public and private institutions, other family members and community networks.