THE CHILDREN WE WANT: family, gender relations and emotions among women with children diagnosed with autism

• Grant number: 23/16891-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Joice Melo Vieira
• Grantee: Marcos Paulo Magalhães de Figueiredo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Despite being something immutable, the classificatory contours of the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)/autism is a cultural product, the result of political and social disputes, involving various actors. When a child is diagnosed as autistic, it brings about changes within the family. Such changes affect mainly, but not only, mothers. There is a new scrutinization regarding the idealizations of the child's future, the professional career of those responsible for the parents and the kinship ties. Thus, it can be inferred that the diagnosis of autism is a turning point in the lives of mothers, that is, an abrupt event that redefines the entire life course of the people involved. This research project aims to investigate how gender and socialities facilitate a possible co-production of motherhood and autistic children through care practices. Such co-production will be analyzed from four fronts: family and gender; science; emotions and politics. The research will take place in the conurbation of Teresina-PI and Timon-MA, based on participant observation and interviews with women from the middle and lower classes. The initial hypothesis is that through social care practices the mother seeks to adapt herself, and the child, to a current cultural grammar and life course ideas.