AUTONOMY AND VULNERABILITY OF THE ELDERLY WITHIN SOCIAL RECOGNITION S PARADIGM: THE SELF-ESTEEM OF AN ELDERLY GROUP IN BOTUCATU

• Grant number: 07/07872-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2008
• End date: May 31, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Public Health
• Principal Investigator: Aluisio Almeida Schumacher
• Grantee: Mariana Lemes de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project is connected with the main project of research Social Recognition and Intersubjetive Autonomy of the Elderly in Botucatu’s Municipality (São Paulo, Brazil), coordinated by Prof. Dr. Rodolfo Franco Puttini (FMB-UNESP-Botucatu). Backed by Axel Honneth’s theory of social recognition, the project’s goal is to study the self-esteem’s contribution to the intersubjective autonomy and health of the elderly. Starting from the existing database of people of 60 years and over it from Botucatu, sixteen elderly will be selected at random and by gender, education level and income criteria. Data collection about social life and self-esteem will be carried out through individual semi-directed interviews, with the purpose of reconstructing comparisons between present and past in the life history of the subject. The transcribed recordings will be analyzed by the coordinator, the searchers and the students involved in the main research. Final results will be published in journals, following the approval of the Ethics Committee of the Medicine College at Botucatu.