Browsing by Author "Pegado, Elsa"
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- Ageing and memory medication : social rationales and consumption practicesPublication . Lopes, Noémia; Pegado, Elsa; Zózimo, Joana R."This article focuses on the social rationales underlying the consumption or rejection of medication for memory by the elderly. Our analysis is set within the wider frame of the current use of psychopharmaceuticals for the enhancement of everyday performance, discussing its relationship to new cultures of ageing. Our results, from a recently concluded study, point to different patterns of investment in memory in old age. On the one hand, we found a willingness to consume medication for memory - a heterogeneous disposition split between the imaginary of disease and that of performance enhancement. On the other hand, we found a cultural resistance and scepticism towards the use of psychopharmaceuticals for performance purposes. This suggests that a new frame of psychopharmaceuticalization of old age - represented by memory medication - is prompting different rationales, ranging from consumption to resistance."
- "Coffee and Cigarettes" : work contexts and performance managementPublication . Raposo, Hélder; Pegado, Elsa; Rodrigues, Carla F.; Fernandes, A.I.
- Coffee in the workplace: a social break or a performance enhancer?Publication . Rodrigues, Carla F.; Raposo, Hélder; Pegado, Elsa; Fernandes, Ana IsabelCoffee is a socially rooted drink with pharmacological properties. It is embedded in different everyday rituals, including ‘coffee breaks’ during working hours. This paper analyzes the role of coffee at workplace. Focusing on three professional areas associated with high pressure and responsive demands, we explore the social expression of coffee use at work, and how it is mobilized as a tool for managing sleepiness, fatigue, stress, and concentration problems, amongst other work-related issues.
- Evaluating the Portuguese National Reading Plan: teachers’ perceptions on the impact in schoolsPublication . Costa, António Firmino da; Pegado, Elsa; Ávila, Patrícia; Coelho, Ana Rita"This article focuses on teachers’ perceptions of the implementation and impact in Portuguese schools of a wide-ranging and long-term reading promotion programme. The Portuguese National Reading Plan (PNRP) was a public policy initiative whose purpose was to increase literacy levels and reading habits among the population. The Plan identified schools as its priority and launched a series of nationwide projects to target schools. The evaluation of this programme, based on mixed methods, focused on teachers’ perceptions as the central issue because teachers were key actors in the PNRP and their involvement was crucial to the achievement of the programme’s goals.Teachers considered that the PNRPhad a relevant impact on school activities and students’ attitudes but were more cautious concerning students’ reading skills. The results that are presented in this article can contribute to a wider discussion regarding the involvement of teachers in national educational policies in which they are key agents."
- A gestão da performance nas culturas juvenis = Performance management in youth culturesPublication . Pegado, ElsaEste artigo procura contribuir para uma reflexão sobre o lugar que a gestão da performance ocupa nas culturas juvenis, focando em particular as percepções dos jovens sobre os consumos de performance, entendidos como o consumo de medicamentos e/ou produtos terapêuticos com finalidades de gestão do desempenho neuro/cognitivo e/ou físico/corporal. A análise tem como base material empírico resultante da componente extensiva de um projecto de pesquisa sobre consumos de performance na população jovem (18-29 anos) em Portugal, designadamente um inquérito por questionário a uma amostra (n =1483) que abrangeu estudantes do ensino superior e trabalhadores sem formação superior. Os resultados revelam uma relativa permeabilidade nas culturas juvenis à ideia de gestão da performance, embora essa permeabilidade não seja homogénea e assuma modulações, quer em função de diferentes critérios de legitimação dos consumos, quer em termos da diversidade social e dos contextos culturais em que os jovens se situam.
- Histórias de (uma) vida: desafios e dilemas éticos na investigação com idososPublication . Pegado, Elsa; Zózimo, Joana; Lopes, NoémiaPartindo da experiência de investigação num estudo sociológico sobre a psicofarmacologização da velhice, cuja metodologia incluiu a realização de histórias de vida, o presente artigo visa discutir alguns dilemas éticos e correspondentes desafios metodológicos inerentes a esta técnica e, em particular, as especificidades da sua aplicação junto da população idosa. O estudo, desenvolvido no concelho de Almada, contemplou a realização de 30 entrevistas de histórias de vida a idosos a viver sós, com idades compreendidas entre os 67 e os 90 anos, com autonomia física e cognitiva, inseridos em três diferentes contextos (Domicílio, Centros de Dia e Lares).
- Medication literacy and its social contextualityPublication . Lopes, Noémia; Rodrigues, Carla; Pegado, ElsaThis article aims to contribute to the discussion about medication literacy, by focussing on the social contextuality of the information mobilised in the use of medicines. We aim to explore the social construction processes of medication literacy, as an essential dimension for a more layperson-centred approach in the promotion of literacy in this field. This approach is justified by the growing social and cultural dissemination of medication use, the diversification of its uses beyond health and illness, and the increasing degree of lay autonomy in managing its use. The article is organised in two main sections. In the first section, we review the social history of medication literacy, including a discussion of the social contextuality of literacy phenomena. In the second section, the analysis of social contextuality is operationalised with a focus on information, covering: (i) ways of relating to institutional information and sources of information about medication; (ii) contexts of sociability in which information is shared and validated. This analysis is empirically supported by selected results from two research projects, conducted in Portugal, on the consumption of medicines and dietary supplements for performance purposes – that is, for the management and/or improvement of cognitive, bodily or relational performance.
- Medication use for the management of professional performance : between invisibility and social normalisationPublication . Lopes, Noémia; Tavares, David; Pegado, Elsa; Raposo, Hélder; Rodrigues, CarlaThis article aims to explore pharmaceuticalisation processes in professional work contexts. The approach focuses on identifying patterns of medicine and dietary supplement use for managing work performance, and on discussing the relationship between these consumption practices and work-related pressure factors. This analysis adapts the notions of ‘normalisation’ to understand the extent of cultural acceptability of these practices, and the notion of ‘differentiated normalisation’ to capture the tension between the trend towards normalisation of such consumption and its partial social (in)visibility within work settings. Empirical support for this analysis is based on a sociological study conducted in Portugal on professions under high performance pressures. The study involved three professional groups – nurses, journalists and police officers. A mixed methods approach was used, including focus groups, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Overall, the results show a trend towards the use of medicines and supplements for performance management, which reveals itself as a cultural response to work-related social pressures. Such consumption coexists with irregular patterns of either occasional or long-term use, as well as heterogeneous processes of ‘normalisation’ and ‘hidden’ consumption. Conclusions point to a social interconnection between the intensification of work pressures and the pharmaceuticalisation of work performance.
- Medications, youth therapeutic cultures and performance consumptions: a sociological approachPublication . Lopes, Noémia; Clamote, Telmo; Raposo, Hélder; Pegado, Elsa; Rodrigues, Carla"This article analyses performance consumptions among young people. The theme is explored along two main axes. The first concerns the social heterogeneity in this field, considered on two levels: the different purposes for those investments – cognitive/mental and physical performance; and the different social contexts – university and work – where performance practices and dispositions may be fostered. The second axis explores the roles of pharmacological and natural consumptions, and their interrelationship, in the dissemination of these practices. The empirical data for this analysis were drawn from an ongoing research project on performance consumptions among young people (aged 18−29 years) in Portugal, including both university students and young workers without university education. The results correspond to the stage of extensive research, for which a questionnaire was organised at a national level, using non-proportional quota sampling. On the one hand, they show that (a) there is a hierarchy of acceptance of consumptions according to their purposes, with cognitive/mental performance showing higher acceptance and (b) both pharmaceuticals and natural products are consumed for every type of performance investment. On the other, the comparison between students and workers introduces a certain heterogeneity in this general backdrop, both in terms of the purposes for their consumptions and their opting for natural or pharmacological resources. These threads of heterogeneity will prompt a discussion of the dynamics of pharmaceuticalisation within the field of performance, in particular how therapeutic cultures may be changing in terms of the way individuals relate to medications, expanding their uses in social life."
- Medicines and medication literacy : social practices and use of informationPublication . Lopes, Noémia; Pegado, Elsa; Egreja, Catarina; Rodrigues, Carla; Fernandes, Ana IsabelThis article discusses results from a sociological study on (i) the sources and use of information on medicines and/or supplements and (ii) the self-assessment of how informed participants were about the last medicine or supplement they purchased. It seeks to demonstrate the plurality of information sources (expert and lay) that individuals call upon—with which they build up their medication literacy—and their perception of the information they have. While these social components of literacy are scarcely visible in available studies, the need to produce knowledge on them is a requisite for a more laypeople-centred approach in public policies seeking to promote medication literacy. A questionnaire was applied in-person (n = 1107) in urban pharmacies in Lisbon and Porto (Portugal). Results show expert information (medical and pharmaceutical) as the dominant reference, followed by lay sources (family/friends/colleagues), while digital sources were less valued than interpersonal ones. This interpersonal dimension was a relevant factor in the building of trust in information. The self-assessment of the information on medication was higher in functional literacy and lower in comprehensive literacy. Studies on medication literacy are particularly relevant in the current context of the expansion and diversification of medicines’ use and of individuals’ growing autonomy in their consumption habits.