Abstract

SANTOS, Keli Lopes  and  HECKERT, Ana Lucia Coelho. Problematizing the production of vulnerability and "hygiened" poverty in social assistance. Psicol. teor. prat. [online]. 2017, vol.19, n.2, pp. 86-97. ISSN 1516-3687.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5935/1980-6906/psicologia.v19n2p86-97.

This article aims at discussing how resistance processes and regulation of life in the Social Assistance Reference Centers (SARC) is carried out, specifically how the notions of vulnerability and hygiene have been instrumented to control things. Michel Foucault's concepts of Resistance and Regulation of Life are the main conceptual tools. In this research, we have deployed two main knowledge production strategies: the analysis of the researcher's notes and memories and the analysis of new individual e group conversations with SARC users, professionals, and ex-professionals from Cariacica, in Espírito Santo. We have observed that labeling the population as vulnerable or at risk contributes to their stigmatization and to justify a series of interventions that seek "to hygiene" them. However, it is worth noting many of these people/groups do not accept and tend escape these interventions in an exercise of resistance and affirmation of counter-hegemonic ways of life.

Keywords : social assistance policy; vulnerability; "to hygiene"; regulation of life; control.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )