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).
- 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."
- Recurso às Medicinas Complementares e Alternativas: padrões sociais e trajetórias terapêuticasPublication . Pegado, Elsa; Costa, António FirminoEsta tese desenvolve-se em torno da temática das medicinas complementares e alternativas (MCA) em Portugal, mais concretamente sobre o recurso dos indivíduos às respetivas terapias. Por MCA entendemos um conjunto diversificado de terapias ou práticas terapêuticas que têm em comum o facto de se demarcarem da chamada medicina convencional e de proclamarem a posse de um corpo de saberes mais ou menos sistematizado sobre a saúde e a doença orientador das práticas terapêuticas. Embora tenham vindo a assumir, nas últimas décadas, uma visibilidade social crescente, em Portugal o conhecimento sociológico sobre a matéria é escasso. Os resultados da pesquisa contribuem para o avanço desse conhecimento em três níveis. Primeiro, a reconstituição do contexto em que a procura das MCA ocorre, isto é, como se estrutura o campo no país, em termos de regulamentação, oferta de cuidados terapêuticos, ensino e formação. Segundo, a caracterização das regularidades sociais na utilização destas medicinas, através de uma sociografia dos utilizadores e da exploração dos padrões sociais de recurso. Terceiro, a demonstração da diversidade de práticas e lógicas sociais no envolvimento com as MCA, através da construção de uma tipologia de quatro modos de relação com as MCA – convicção, ecletismo, experimentalismo e complacência –, constituídos ao longo de trajetórias terapêuticas também diversas. Adotámos uma estratégia de investigação plurimetodológica, que combinou procedimentos de tipo extensivo-quantitativo com procedimentos de tipo intensivo-qualitativo, designadamente: análise documental; inquéritos por questionário e entrevistas semi-diretivas.
- The uses of coffee in highly demanding work contexts: managing rhythms, sleep, and performancePublication . Pegado, Elsa; Rodrigues, Carla; Raposo, Hélder; Fernandes, Ana I.This paper presents a sociological approach to coffee consumption as a performance management strategy in work contexts, particularly in professions with intense work rhythms and highly responsive demands. Focusing on the daily work of three professional groups (nurses, police officers, and journalists), we analyze the social expression of coffee and how it is mobilized to deal with sleep problems, fatigue, concentration, or stress. For this purpose, three intertwined dimensions are explored: (1) the nature of these professionals’ work and the pressures for certain forms and levels of performance; (2) sleep problems as both a result of those work characteristics and a constraint on performance; and (3) the role of coffee in managing professional imperatives. The use of coffee appears as a legitimate practice in everyday working routines, due to its socializing markers, whereas additional benefits are attributed to the pharmacological properties of caffeine, given the perceived improvement in performance. The empirical data derive from a study carried out in Portugal on the use of medicines and food supplements for performance management, following a mixed methods approach. In particular, data from a questionnaire survey in a sample of 539 workers and information collected through seven focus groups with a total of 33 participants were used.
- Therapeutic consumption for improved performance. Is there a risk?Publication . Fernandes, Ana Isabel; Pegado, Elsa; Hélder, Raposo; Clamote, Telmo; Lopes, Noémia