- Santiago, Chile
- King's College London, Social Science, Health and Medicine, Department Memberadd
- Sociology of Children and Childhood, Child and adolescent mental health, Anthropology of Children and Childhood, Children's Literature & Culture, Children and Families, Self and Identity, and 19 moreFilosofía, Antropología, Critical Psychology, Estudios Culturales, Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, STS (Anthropology), Anthropology of Pharmaceuticals, Lacanian psychoanalysis, Psychoanalysis, Child Clinical Psychology, Sociology of Mental Health & Illness, Social Studies Of Science, Critical Social Psychology, science and technology studies (STS), ADHD (Psychology), Medicalization, Sociology of Health and Illness, and Science and Technology Studiesedit
- Psicólogo infanto-juvenil, PhD en Sociología, Departamento de Salud Global & Medicina Social, King's College London /... morePsicólogo infanto-juvenil, PhD en Sociología, Departamento de Salud Global & Medicina Social, King's College London // Clinical Psychologist, PhD in Sociology, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, King's College Londonedit
Research Interests:
Hauntology has become an increasingly alluring concept in social sciences to reflect upon everyday life and how subjects dwell upon scenarios pervaded not only by the potency of the actual but also the haunting of the past and the... more
Hauntology has become an increasingly alluring concept in social sciences to reflect upon everyday life and how subjects dwell upon scenarios pervaded not only by the potency of the actual but also the haunting of the past and the virtual. Drawing on the concept of 'hauntology', we inquire about recurring temporalities and spectrality themes concerning the 'controversial' diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Chile. Using participant observation and in-depth interviews with health practitioners, teachers, school staff, diagnosed children, and their peers from 3-year-long research, we examine how the performance of the diagnosis by clinicians at times can produce a modification of the temporality of the diagnosed children from that moment forth. Amidst tension created by educational policies, ideas of well-being, pedagogical practices, and everyday living, the diagnosis keeps repeating its agentic capacity while resisting its decay, becoming ever-present and actual. Once cast, the diagnosis acts as a repeating force that can shape every experience, cancelling the possibility for the child to become different by unfolding out of the diagnosis.
Research Interests:
This article draws upon findings from fieldwork conducted with Chilean mental health practitioners and school staff to explore how children’s mental health diagnoses can be used in the school setting as a particular rationale to mobilise... more
This article draws upon findings from fieldwork conducted with Chilean mental health practitioners and school staff to explore how children’s mental health diagnoses can be used in the school setting as a particular rationale to mobilise and convey new forms of care practices (Mol, The logic of care: Health and the problem of patient choice, 2008). Inspired by the framing of care as an interrelational, interdependent and more‐than‐human affair promoted by Science and Technology Studies, and drawing from conceptual tools offered by post‐humanist approaches, we focus our examination on the diagnosis of attention deficit‐hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Following the diagnosis since its formulation by clinicians in the public sector to its enactment in an urban school in Santiago, Chile, we explore how certain caring/uncaring practices are enacted in relation to the diagnosis, reconfiguring the classroom by incorporating (non)human actors to care for the diagnosed child. However, care is ambivalent, and the diagnosis can be put into action for other purposes as it interweaves with educational policies and other agendas. Thus, to produce policies that truly foster inclusion, attention must be given to the micropolitical level where disabilities and disorders are enacted, developing appropriate ethico‐political and affective sensitivities to care accordingly.
Research Interests:
This article draws upon findings from fieldwork conducted with Chilean mental health practitioners and school staff to explore how children’s mental health diagnoses can be used in the school setting as a particular rationale to mobilise... more
This article draws upon findings from fieldwork conducted with Chilean mental health practitioners and school staff to explore how children’s mental health diagnoses can be used in the school setting as a particular rationale to mobilise and convey new forms of care practices (Mol, The logic of care: Health and the problem of patient choice, 2008). Inspired by the framing of care as an interrelational, interdependent and more-than human affair promoted by Science and Technology Studies, and drawing from conceptual tools offered by post-humanist approaches, we focus our examination on the diagnosis of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Following the diagnosis since its formulation by clinicians in the public sector to its enactment in an urban school in Santiago, Chile, we explore how certain caring/uncaring practices are enacted in relation to the diagnosis, reconfiguring the classroom by incorporating (non)human actors to care for the diagnosed child. However, care is ambivalent, and the diagnosis can be put into action for other purposes as it interweaves with educational policies and other agendas. Thus, to produce policies that truly foster inclusion, attention must be given to the micropolitical level where disabilities and disorders are enacted, developing´appropriate ethico-political and affective sensitivities to care accordingly.
Research Interests:
This article presents some results of “CUIDAR; study on times, forms, and spaces of care at home during the pandemic,” a research project that explored how the pandemic and the subsequent policies implemented by the Chilean government... more
This article presents some results of “CUIDAR; study on times, forms, and spaces of care at home during the pandemic,” a research project that explored how the pandemic and the subsequent policies implemented by the Chilean government transformed and disrupted the spatialities, temporalities, and practices of care within the households. To do so, we designed a web survey that draws inspiration from care theories emerging from the field of Science and Technology Studies or STS. Such an approach allowed thinking about care as a more-than-human affair that goes beyond a particular moral stance and corresponds more with a doing anchored in the entanglements of human and non-human actors. Data gathered revealed the appearance of new actors while stressing that care is much too relevant and complex to only rest upon specific household members – namely women – who are left to their own devices since policies implemented seem to be unable to support them in the tasks of caring for themselves and others.
Este artigo apresenta alguns resultados de “Cuidar; estudo sobre tempos, formas e espaços de cuidado no lar durante a pandemia,” uma investigação que explorou como a pandemia e as políticas subseqüentes implementadas pelo governo chileno transformaram e interromperam as espacialidades, temporalidades e práticas de cuidado dentro dos lares. Para isso, elaboramos um web survey que se inspira nas teorias do cuidado que surgem do campo dos Estudos de Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade ou CTS. Tal abordagem permitiu pensar o cuidado como uma questão mais-que-humana que vai além de uma determinada posição moral, correspondendo principalmente a uma tarefa que depende das redes que se constituem entre atores humanos e não humanos. Os dados coletados revelaram o surgimento de novos atores, ao mesmo tempo que enfatizaram que o cuidado é muito relevante e complexo para recair apenas em determinados membros da família – em sua maioria mulheres – que são deixados à própria sorte, uma vez que as políticas implementadas parecem não suportar elas nas tarefas de cuidar de si e dos outros.
Este artículo presenta algunos resultados de “CUIDAR; estudio sobre tiempos, formas y espacios de cuidado en el hogar durante la pandemia,” una investigación que exploró cómo la pandemia y las políticas posteriores implementadas por el gobierno chileno transformaron y trastocaron las espacialidades, temporalidades y prácticas de cuidado dentro de los hogares. Para ello, diseñamos una encuesta web que se inspira en las teorías del cuidado que surgen del campo de los Estudios de Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad o CTS. Tal enfoque permitió pensar en el cuidado como un asunto más-que-humano que va más allá de una postura moral particular, correspondiendo mayormente a un quehacer que es dependiente de los entramados que se constituyen entre actores humanos y no humanos. Los datos recopilados revelaron la aparición de nuevos actores, al tiempo que enfatizaron que el cuidado es demasiado relevante y complejo para descansar solo en miembros particulares del hogar – mayormente las mujeres – que son dejadas a su suerte, ya que las políticas implementadas parecen ser incapaces de apoyarlas en las tareas de cuidar de sí mismas y de los otros.
Este artigo apresenta alguns resultados de “Cuidar; estudo sobre tempos, formas e espaços de cuidado no lar durante a pandemia,” uma investigação que explorou como a pandemia e as políticas subseqüentes implementadas pelo governo chileno transformaram e interromperam as espacialidades, temporalidades e práticas de cuidado dentro dos lares. Para isso, elaboramos um web survey que se inspira nas teorias do cuidado que surgem do campo dos Estudos de Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade ou CTS. Tal abordagem permitiu pensar o cuidado como uma questão mais-que-humana que vai além de uma determinada posição moral, correspondendo principalmente a uma tarefa que depende das redes que se constituem entre atores humanos e não humanos. Os dados coletados revelaram o surgimento de novos atores, ao mesmo tempo que enfatizaram que o cuidado é muito relevante e complexo para recair apenas em determinados membros da família – em sua maioria mulheres – que são deixados à própria sorte, uma vez que as políticas implementadas parecem não suportar elas nas tarefas de cuidar de si e dos outros.
Este artículo presenta algunos resultados de “CUIDAR; estudio sobre tiempos, formas y espacios de cuidado en el hogar durante la pandemia,” una investigación que exploró cómo la pandemia y las políticas posteriores implementadas por el gobierno chileno transformaron y trastocaron las espacialidades, temporalidades y prácticas de cuidado dentro de los hogares. Para ello, diseñamos una encuesta web que se inspira en las teorías del cuidado que surgen del campo de los Estudios de Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad o CTS. Tal enfoque permitió pensar en el cuidado como un asunto más-que-humano que va más allá de una postura moral particular, correspondiendo mayormente a un quehacer que es dependiente de los entramados que se constituyen entre actores humanos y no humanos. Los datos recopilados revelaron la aparición de nuevos actores, al tiempo que enfatizaron que el cuidado es demasiado relevante y complejo para descansar solo en miembros particulares del hogar – mayormente las mujeres – que son dejadas a su suerte, ya que las políticas implementadas parecen ser incapaces de apoyarlas en las tareas de cuidar de sí mismas y de los otros.
Research Interests:
Este artículo propone una visión alternativa a las críticas tradicionales respecto a la medicalización de la infancia y a como esta ocurre en las instituciones escolares. Considerando que los procesos de medicalización deben ser... more
Este artículo propone una visión alternativa a las críticas tradicionales respecto a la medicalización de la infancia y a como esta ocurre en las instituciones escolares. Considerando que los procesos de medicalización deben ser entendidos en relación a otras fuerzas y dinámicas con las cuales interctuan y se co-afecta, se propone que los efectos clasificatorios y de segregación que se desprenden del uso de diagnósticos y psicotecnologías se relaciona, en gran parte, a la adopción de estas categorías y tecnologías por un modelo educacional regido por lógicas de competencia y responsabilización. Para explorar otros devenires posibles de la medicalización, se analiza un caso en donde esta es puestas en juego en relación a otras dinámicas.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Sociology, Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, Sociology of Children and Childhood, Child and adolescent mental health, and 15 moreChildren and Families, ADHD, Public Health, Medicine, Sociology of Health and Illness, Psychostimulants, Critical Neuroscience, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Family and Community Medicine, Global Mental Health Issues, Contemporary Sociology, Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
Research Interests:
This article draws upon findings from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Chilean school to explore how the effects of globally circulating ADHD medications emerge within the localized contexts of everyday users. An analysis of... more
This article draws upon findings from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Chilean school to explore how the effects of globally circulating ADHD medications emerge within the localized contexts of everyday users. An analysis of observations of children on ADHD medications within classroom settings is developed which challenges the assumption, pervasive within biomedical paradigms, that the effects of such medications can be understood as resulting directly from their chemical properties and biological modes of action. Our case study highlights the significance of multiple, interacting determinants of drug effects in an everyday setting, focusing in particular on classroom dynamics, teacher-student relations, and the agency of children taking the medications. We conclude that while ADHD medications may act in part by altering physiological processes, an adequate account of their effects requires that analytic attention extends to the sociomaterial contexts in which medications and ...
Research Interests: Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, Ethnography, Child and adolescent mental health, ADHD, and 15 moreChile, Global Mental Health, Anthropology of Pharmaceuticals, Educación, Child Behavior, Agency, Humans, Child, Etnografía, Female, Male, Medicalization, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity, and Central nervous system stimulants
Research Interests: Sociology of Children and Childhood, ADHD (Psychology), Child and adolescent mental health, Critical Social Psychology, Critical Discourse Analysis, and 9 moreChildhood studies, Diagnosis, Análisis Crítico Del Discurso, Infancia, PSicologia Social Crítica, DSM problems, Trastorno de deficit de atención e hiperactividad, Niñez, and Child and Adolescent Mental Health
Research Interests:
El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar cómo el incremento de las labores de cuidado, producto de la pandemia, y el quiebre de la red de cuidados han recaído significativamente sobre las mujeres. Al reconocer la crisis de los cuidados,... more
El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar cómo el incremento de las labores
de cuidado, producto de la pandemia, y el quiebre de la red de cuidados han recaído significativamente sobre las mujeres. Al reconocer la crisis de los cuidados, que ha privilegiado un modelo individualista por sobre uno social o comunitario, la pandemia de la covid-19 revela las sobrecargas de un tipo de sujeto y las imposibilidades para pensar otras formas de cuidar. Mediante la presentación de algunos resultados, obtenidos por la encuesta Cuidar, realizada en Chile en mayo de 2020, en un contexto de cuarentena estricta, cierre de establecimientos educacionales y medidas de distanciamiento social, discutimos la participación de las mujeres
en entramados de prácticas de cuidado que se van tornando cada vez más
frágiles. Si consideramos que las mujeres son actores clave en estas articulaciones, la precarización de su calidad de vida afecta la capacidad misma de la red para sostener y cuidar y, por ende, la capacidad de las mujeres para cuidar tanto de sí mismas como de otros. Es decir, la pandemia no solo muestra un conjunto de prácticas que se desarticula y reorganiza, sino que, dada su organización privatizada y concentrada en un tipo de individuo, se hace mucho más frágil en tanto que depende casi exclusivamente de un sujeto cuyas posibilidades de repensarse o rearticularse son menores o limitadas.
de cuidado, producto de la pandemia, y el quiebre de la red de cuidados han recaído significativamente sobre las mujeres. Al reconocer la crisis de los cuidados, que ha privilegiado un modelo individualista por sobre uno social o comunitario, la pandemia de la covid-19 revela las sobrecargas de un tipo de sujeto y las imposibilidades para pensar otras formas de cuidar. Mediante la presentación de algunos resultados, obtenidos por la encuesta Cuidar, realizada en Chile en mayo de 2020, en un contexto de cuarentena estricta, cierre de establecimientos educacionales y medidas de distanciamiento social, discutimos la participación de las mujeres
en entramados de prácticas de cuidado que se van tornando cada vez más
frágiles. Si consideramos que las mujeres son actores clave en estas articulaciones, la precarización de su calidad de vida afecta la capacidad misma de la red para sostener y cuidar y, por ende, la capacidad de las mujeres para cuidar tanto de sí mismas como de otros. Es decir, la pandemia no solo muestra un conjunto de prácticas que se desarticula y reorganiza, sino que, dada su organización privatizada y concentrada en un tipo de individuo, se hace mucho más frágil en tanto que depende casi exclusivamente de un sujeto cuyas posibilidades de repensarse o rearticularse son menores o limitadas.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Anthropology and Ethos
This paper is a theoretical reflection based on the results of two research projects conducted between the years 2010 and 2012 in Chile. Using a theoretical framework inspired by Michel Foucault’s work, and considering findings by the New... more
This paper is a theoretical reflection based on the results of two research projects conducted between the years 2010 and 2012 in Chile. Using a theoretical framework inspired by Michel Foucault’s work, and considering findings by the New Social Studies of Childhood, we stress the relation between biomedical and ‘psy discourses’ and the way children build their identities in relation to labels given to them by these discourses. Using the case of children diagnosed with ADHD, we show how diagnosed children resist being reduced to what specialized discourses coming from biomedicine say about them, especially considering that the diagnostic process does not consider as relevant children’s impressions or opinions about their behaviour. Children resist the biomedical diagnosis by developing new ways to build their identity, which challenge thel descriptions of how ‘ADHD kids’ act and think.
Research Interests:
Esta entrevista presenta un diálogo con el equipo a cargo de la investigación "Cuidar. Estudio sobre tiempos, formas y espacios de cuidado en casa durante la pandemia". Se abordan los principales desafíos teóricos y metodológicos... more
Esta entrevista presenta un diálogo con el equipo a cargo de la investigación "Cuidar. Estudio sobre tiempos, formas y espacios de cuidado en casa durante la pandemia". Se abordan los principales desafíos teóricos y metodológicos asociados a estudiar los cuidados desde una perspectiva interdisciplinar y, a continuación, los principales hallazgos del estudio y sus implicancias en el campo de la investigación social y las políticas públicas. Palabras clave: cuidado, pandemia, crisis. The care in times of crisis Interview.
This interview presents a dialogue with the research team of the study "Cuidar. Estudio sobre tiempos, formas y espacios de cuidado en casa durante la pandemia". We first explore the theoretical and methodological challenges associated with studying care from an interdisciplinary perspective. Then, we show main findings of the study and their implications in the field of social science research and public policy.
This interview presents a dialogue with the research team of the study "Cuidar. Estudio sobre tiempos, formas y espacios de cuidado en casa durante la pandemia". We first explore the theoretical and methodological challenges associated with studying care from an interdisciplinary perspective. Then, we show main findings of the study and their implications in the field of social science research and public policy.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
DOSSIÊ TEMÁTICO: A medicalização da educação no Brasil e no Chile: diferentes perspectivas MEDICALIZACIÓN Y NEOLIBERALISMO: IMAGINANDO OTROS FUTUROS EN LOS COLEGIOS MEDICALISATION IN NEOLIBERAL CONTEXTS: IMAGINING OTHER FUTURES IN... more
DOSSIÊ TEMÁTICO: A medicalização da educação no Brasil e no Chile: diferentes perspectivas
MEDICALIZACIÓN Y NEOLIBERALISMO: IMAGINANDO OTROS FUTUROS EN LOS COLEGIOS
MEDICALISATION IN NEOLIBERAL CONTEXTS: IMAGINING OTHER FUTURES IN SCHOOLS
MEDICALIZAÇÃO E NEOLIBERALISMO: IMAGINANDO OUTROS FURUROS NAS ESCOLAS
Este artículo propone una visión alternativa a las críticas tradicionales respecto a la medicalización de la infancia y a cómo esta ocurre en las instituciones escolares. Considerando que los procesos de medicalización deben ser entendidos en relación a otras fuerzas y dinámicas con las cuales interactúan y se co-afecta, se propone que los efectos clasificatorios y de segregación que se desprenden del uso de diagnósticos y psicotecnologías se relaciona, en gran parte, a la adopción de estas categorías y tecnologías por un modelo educacional regido por lógicas de competencia y responsabilización. Para explorar otros devenires posibles de la medicalización, se analiza un caso en donde esta es puestas en juego en relación a otras dinámicas.
Abstract: This article advances an alternative to traditional approaches to the medicalization of childhood in the school setting. Considering that processes of medicalization must be understood in relation to other forces and dynamics set in motion with which they interact and mutually affect each other, this article advances the idea that the use of diagnoses and psychotechnologies for purposes of classification and segregation are, to a large extent, linked to their implementation by an educational model ruled by principles of competition and accountability. To explore other potential unfoldings of medicalisation, I analyse a case where medicalisation processes enter the arena but concerning other dynamics and forces. Resumo: Este artigo propõe uma visão alternativa às críticas tradicionais a respeito da medicalização da infância e a como esta ocorre nas instituições escolares. Considerando que os processos de medicalização devem ser entendidos em relação a outras forças e dinâmicas com as quais interagem e se co-afetam, propõe-se que os efeitos classificatórios e de segregação que se desprendem do uso de diagnósticos e psicotecnologias se relaciona, em grande parte, à adoção destas categorias e tecnologias
MEDICALIZACIÓN Y NEOLIBERALISMO: IMAGINANDO OTROS FUTUROS EN LOS COLEGIOS
MEDICALISATION IN NEOLIBERAL CONTEXTS: IMAGINING OTHER FUTURES IN SCHOOLS
MEDICALIZAÇÃO E NEOLIBERALISMO: IMAGINANDO OUTROS FURUROS NAS ESCOLAS
Este artículo propone una visión alternativa a las críticas tradicionales respecto a la medicalización de la infancia y a cómo esta ocurre en las instituciones escolares. Considerando que los procesos de medicalización deben ser entendidos en relación a otras fuerzas y dinámicas con las cuales interactúan y se co-afecta, se propone que los efectos clasificatorios y de segregación que se desprenden del uso de diagnósticos y psicotecnologías se relaciona, en gran parte, a la adopción de estas categorías y tecnologías por un modelo educacional regido por lógicas de competencia y responsabilización. Para explorar otros devenires posibles de la medicalización, se analiza un caso en donde esta es puestas en juego en relación a otras dinámicas.
Abstract: This article advances an alternative to traditional approaches to the medicalization of childhood in the school setting. Considering that processes of medicalization must be understood in relation to other forces and dynamics set in motion with which they interact and mutually affect each other, this article advances the idea that the use of diagnoses and psychotechnologies for purposes of classification and segregation are, to a large extent, linked to their implementation by an educational model ruled by principles of competition and accountability. To explore other potential unfoldings of medicalisation, I analyse a case where medicalisation processes enter the arena but concerning other dynamics and forces. Resumo: Este artigo propõe uma visão alternativa às críticas tradicionais a respeito da medicalização da infância e a como esta ocorre nas instituições escolares. Considerando que os processos de medicalização devem ser entendidos em relação a outras forças e dinâmicas com as quais interagem e se co-afetam, propõe-se que os efeitos classificatórios e de segregação que se desprendem do uso de diagnósticos e psicotecnologias se relaciona, em grande parte, à adoção destas categorias e tecnologias
Research Interests:
Este artículo propone un abordaje semiótico-material para pensar con el Trastorno por Déficit de Atención/Hiperactividad (TDAH) y el uso de psicoestimulantes. A partir de una etnografía de las prácticas acontecidas en dos colegios de... more
Este artículo propone un abordaje semiótico-material para pensar con el Trastorno por Déficit de Atención/Hiperactividad (TDAH) y el uso de psicoestimulantes. A partir de una etnografía de las prácticas acontecidas en dos colegios de Santiago, sostenemos que una aproximación prágmatica, relacional y posthumanista abre al análisis otros procesos y dinámicas respecto a como niños y niñas diagnósticadas, medicamentos, compañeras, profesores y otros actores humanos y no-humanos interactuan y se co-afectan, enactando versiones singulares del diagnóstico y de los efectos de la medicación. Así, proponemos resituar la discusión para evitar binarismos que han coactado la reflexión respecto a cómo niños y niñas afectan y son afectados por los saberes biomédicos y las prácticas "psi". Particularmente, cuestionamos que subjetividad y psicofármacos son esencialmente agentes antagónicos, ya que en la práctica ambos co-existen, se co-afectan, y pueden producir elementos creativos y emergentes, tal como nuestro análisis de las notas de campo y relatos etnográficos revela.
This article advances a material-semiotic approach in order to think with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the use of psychostimulant medication. Drawing from an ethnography centered around the practices enacted in two schools in Santiago, we argue that a pragmatic, relational and posthuman approach extends the analysis to different processes and dynamics about how children diagnosed with ADHD, medication, their peers, teachers and others human and non-human actors co-affect each other, thus enacting particular versions of the diagnose and of the medication's effects. Therefore, we argue for the need to relocate the discussion to avoid binaries that have trapped the reflections about how children affect and are affected by biomedical knowledges and "psy" practices. Particularly, we question the idea that subjectivity and psychostimulants are forcefully antagonist agents since, in practice, they both co-exist, co-affecting each other, producing creative and emergent elements, as revealed by our fieldnotes and ethnographic interviews.
This article advances a material-semiotic approach in order to think with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the use of psychostimulant medication. Drawing from an ethnography centered around the practices enacted in two schools in Santiago, we argue that a pragmatic, relational and posthuman approach extends the analysis to different processes and dynamics about how children diagnosed with ADHD, medication, their peers, teachers and others human and non-human actors co-affect each other, thus enacting particular versions of the diagnose and of the medication's effects. Therefore, we argue for the need to relocate the discussion to avoid binaries that have trapped the reflections about how children affect and are affected by biomedical knowledges and "psy" practices. Particularly, we question the idea that subjectivity and psychostimulants are forcefully antagonist agents since, in practice, they both co-exist, co-affecting each other, producing creative and emergent elements, as revealed by our fieldnotes and ethnographic interviews.
Research Interests:
Este artículo propone un abordaje complejo y posthumanista a los diversos modos mediante los cuales niñas, niños y psicofármacos se co-afectan, determinando diversos devenires ontológicos a partir de esta interacción, en el nicho provisto... more
Este artículo propone un abordaje complejo y posthumanista a los diversos modos mediante los cuales niñas, niños y psicofármacos se co-afectan, determinando diversos devenires ontológicos a partir de esta interacción, en el nicho provisto por dos escuelas ubicadas en la zona oriente de Santiago de Chile. A partir de los resultados de una praxiografía que se extendió por ocho meses con niñas y niños de 9 y 10 años, se sostiene que es necesario pensar esta relación entre niñas, niños y psicofármacos desde coordenadas distintas a las provistas por las tesis de la medicalización. Esto, en tanto ellas reducen y achatan la noción de subjetividad a una posesión interna del individuo, y a una separación radical con el mundo, sostenida en una discutible idea de excepcionalismo humano. En respuesta a esta idea de subjetividad, se propone otra que permite un abordaje diferente al problema, en tanto es una subjetividad entendida en sus aspectos procesales, dinámicos, y últimamente sostenido en base a entramados con el mundo y con la medicación.
Research Interests:
This article draws upon findings from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Chilean school to explore how the effects of globally circulating ADHD medications emerge within the localized contexts of everyday users. An analysis of... more
This article draws upon findings from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Chilean school to explore how the effects of globally circulating ADHD medications emerge within the localized contexts of everyday users. An analysis of observations of children on ADHD medications within classroom settings is developed which challenges the assumption, pervasive within biomedical paradigms, that the effects of such medications can be understood as resulting directly from their chemical properties and biological modes of action. Our case study highlights the significance of multiple, interacting determinants of drug effects in an everyday setting, focusing in particular on classroom dynamics, teacher–student relations, and the agency of children taking the medications. We conclude that while ADHD medications may act in part by altering physiological processes, an adequate account of their effects requires that analytic attention extends to the sociomaterial contexts in which medications and users are embedded.
Research Interests: Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, Sociology of Children and Childhood, Ethnography, ADHD (Psychology), and 16 moreChild and adolescent mental health, ADHD, STS (Anthropology), Chile, Medical Anthropology/ antropología médica, Global Mental Health, Anthropology of Pharmaceuticals, New Social Studies of Childhood, Educación, Agency, Etnografía, Sociologia da Infância, Post-Humanism, Medicalization, Stimulant medication, and Trastornos de la infancia y la adolescencia
Este trabajo examina desde la perspectiva del análisis crítico del discurso, el diagnóstico del Trastorno de Déficit Atencional con Hiperactividad, tal como lo plantea el DSM–IV y CIE-10. Considera como fundamento las dificultades que la... more
Este trabajo examina desde la perspectiva del análisis crítico del discurso, el diagnóstico del Trastorno de Déficit Atencional con Hiperactividad, tal como lo plantea el DSM–IV y CIE-10. Considera como fundamento las dificultades que la taxonomía médica plantea respecto de la infancia como categoría social distinta de la adultez, la utilización del signo de la hipercinesia como prueba del trastorno, y el uso de instrumentos auxiliares ajenos al setting clínico, como el “Test de Conners”. El contexto de análisis remite a las condiciones presentes en Chile. En específico, considera los usos del diagnóstico en el espacio institucional de la escuela. Como aspectos finales, se analiza el diagnóstico desde sus usos y efectos en la regulación y autogobierno de los individuos y sus cuerpos.
Research Interests:
El presente artículo reflexiona respecto a la articulación entre el psicoanálisis y las ciencias, relación marcada históricamente por un desencuentro fundamental. La ciencia establece una crítica al psicoanálisis, dudando de su valor,... more
El presente artículo reflexiona respecto a la articulación entre el psicoanálisis y las ciencias, relación marcada históricamente por un desencuentro fundamental. La ciencia establece una crítica al psicoanálisis, dudando de su valor, métodos y aportes debido a que lo considera una teoría alejada de lo empírico y la experimentación. Sin embargo, esto se debe a que suele olvidarse que algunas de las principales teorizaciones del psicoanálisis vienen de la lectura, observación y crítica a estudios científicos. Caso ejemplar de lo anterior es la teoría psicoanalítica de la constitución subjetiva, la cual encuentra correlato en los estudios de los psicólogos experimentales.
El presente artículo pretende mostrar algunas de las principales formas mediante las cuales el psicoanálisis, a lo largo de su constitución y de su historia, ha establecido contacto con la literatura. Dada la relevancia que el campo de... more
El presente artículo pretende mostrar algunas de las principales formas mediante las cuales el psicoanálisis, a lo largo de su constitución y de su historia, ha establecido contacto con la literatura. Dada la relevancia que el campo de las letras ha tenido históricamente como reflejo y modulador de las subjetividades de su tiempo, resulta pertinente observar como algunos de los principales psicoanalistas piensan el vínculo de esta disciplina con la literatura, y que tipos de uso le otorgan en la construcción teórica del psicoanálisis.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In his first editorial as new editor of Childhood—a flagship journal for academics and scholars interested in childhood studies—Spyros Spyrou (2017) strongly argued for the necessity to reconsider some key notions and categories that, for... more
In his first editorial as new editor of Childhood—a flagship journal for academics and scholars interested in childhood studies—Spyros Spyrou (2017) strongly argued for the necessity to reconsider some key notions and categories that, for a long time, have been central for our current understanding of children and childhood. Mainly, he aimed at “decentering” childhood by incorporating, in a braver fashion, insights from emerging fields and theories that have been sensitive to the transformations carried on by the “ontological turn” in social sciences. This, as the need to “engage with real-life emerging concerns which escape the narrow confines of a ‘child-centered’ field of study” has become increasingly evident (Spyrou, p. 433).
The concerns and propositions made by Spyrou are not unknown for the field of psychosocial studies and social psychology. Attempts have been made by key scholars in this field to search for inspiration in other areas of expertise (Brown & Stenner, 2009; O’Doherty et al., 2019; Nichterlein 2021; Stenner, 2017), inasmuch they have perceived the urgent need to reconfigure these field’s methods and subjects of study. In the midst of a social world that is constantly changing, it becomes imperative to create renewed approaches, able to grasp the complexities of our current modes of existence, where the borders between the social, the natural, and the technological are becoming increasingly blurred (Prout, 2005). After all, as Stenner (2014, p. 206) has argued, “questions of psychology can be very poorly posed when abstracted from their cultural, societal and historical settings, and (…) these settings are poorly understood in abstraction
from the living, experiencing human beings whose actions make their reproduction and transformation possible.”
Although these new foundations for psychology and psychosocial studies have managed to inspire interesting alternatives to think about traditional topics in psychology (Brown, 2018; Brown & Reavey, 2015; Brown & Stenner, 2009; Cromby, 2015; Rojas, 2017; Tucker, 2012), its impact in reimagining childhood still requires further developing. Despite attempts made to reframe childhood (Lee & Motzkau, 2012; Rojas Navarro, 2018), “childhood” and “children” continue to be categories strongly embedded in modernist ideas about the human subject, which end up acting as shortcomings that prevent the development of a new theoretically and empirically informed imagination about childhood.
This chapter advances in the wake of the latter. To fully grasp the complexities and multiplicities (Law & Mol, 2002) of current children’s lives, we resign traditional conceptualizations of childhood that have pervaded child and social psychology during most of the twentieth century, offering an alternative port of departure. Inspired by current theoretical debates in social sciences and the humanities, and particularly on debates about posthumanism, the ontological turn, and the urgencies of the Anthropocene, we argue for the need to reconceptualize childhood in terms of entanglements, fragile assemblages produced in encounters that are open-ended and dependent on the heterogeneity of human and nonhuman agents (Prout, 2019; Savransky, 2016).
Such a post-essentialist approach demands us to be aware of the fundamental relationality of childhood. It also requests researchers to be attentive to the constant component of novelty in which children’s lives are enacted in different locations, times, and spaces.
The concerns and propositions made by Spyrou are not unknown for the field of psychosocial studies and social psychology. Attempts have been made by key scholars in this field to search for inspiration in other areas of expertise (Brown & Stenner, 2009; O’Doherty et al., 2019; Nichterlein 2021; Stenner, 2017), inasmuch they have perceived the urgent need to reconfigure these field’s methods and subjects of study. In the midst of a social world that is constantly changing, it becomes imperative to create renewed approaches, able to grasp the complexities of our current modes of existence, where the borders between the social, the natural, and the technological are becoming increasingly blurred (Prout, 2005). After all, as Stenner (2014, p. 206) has argued, “questions of psychology can be very poorly posed when abstracted from their cultural, societal and historical settings, and (…) these settings are poorly understood in abstraction
from the living, experiencing human beings whose actions make their reproduction and transformation possible.”
Although these new foundations for psychology and psychosocial studies have managed to inspire interesting alternatives to think about traditional topics in psychology (Brown, 2018; Brown & Reavey, 2015; Brown & Stenner, 2009; Cromby, 2015; Rojas, 2017; Tucker, 2012), its impact in reimagining childhood still requires further developing. Despite attempts made to reframe childhood (Lee & Motzkau, 2012; Rojas Navarro, 2018), “childhood” and “children” continue to be categories strongly embedded in modernist ideas about the human subject, which end up acting as shortcomings that prevent the development of a new theoretically and empirically informed imagination about childhood.
This chapter advances in the wake of the latter. To fully grasp the complexities and multiplicities (Law & Mol, 2002) of current children’s lives, we resign traditional conceptualizations of childhood that have pervaded child and social psychology during most of the twentieth century, offering an alternative port of departure. Inspired by current theoretical debates in social sciences and the humanities, and particularly on debates about posthumanism, the ontological turn, and the urgencies of the Anthropocene, we argue for the need to reconceptualize childhood in terms of entanglements, fragile assemblages produced in encounters that are open-ended and dependent on the heterogeneity of human and nonhuman agents (Prout, 2019; Savransky, 2016).
Such a post-essentialist approach demands us to be aware of the fundamental relationality of childhood. It also requests researchers to be attentive to the constant component of novelty in which children’s lives are enacted in different locations, times, and spaces.
Research Interests:
Ao longo deste capítulo, apresentamos uma revisão do conceito foucaultiano de aleturgia. O nosso esforço não foi o de fazer uma exegese desta noção ou do trabalho do filósofo francês, mas de explorar como esse conceito nos permite... more
Ao longo deste capítulo, apresentamos uma revisão do conceito foucaultiano de aleturgia. O nosso esforço não foi o de fazer uma exegese desta noção ou do trabalho do filósofo francês, mas de explorar como esse conceito nos permite introduzir na nossa análise o problema do sujeito e da verdade. Nossa proposta consistiu em sustentar que operar com a noção de aleturgia implica acompanhar Foucault em uma jornada produtiva para problematizar certos lugares comuns que se tornaram muito confortáveis ao analisar a subjetividade e os processos de subjetivação dentro do quadro das governamentalidades neoliberais ou de liberais avançadas. A ideia não é ir contra as análises convincentes e sugestivas elaboradas sobre este tema pelos estudos da governamentalidade, mas resistir a certa tendência que este empreendimento crítico tem mostrado ao analisar as subjetivações neoliberais de forma homogeneizante, onde o protagonismo está mais do lado dos ditames da articulação entre os saberes e o exercício do poder das artes de governo, do que das práticas ou esforços concretos dos indivíduos que as experimentam.
Propusemos também que a inclusão do problema do sujeito e da verdade, por meio do problema da constituição dos atos de verdade, pode enriquecer nossa conceitualização e análise das práticas e saberes psi e do papel que desempenham no presente.
Propusemos também que a inclusão do problema do sujeito e da verdade, por meio do problema da constituição dos atos de verdade, pode enriquecer nossa conceitualização e análise das práticas e saberes psi e do papel que desempenham no presente.
Propusemos também que a inclusão do problema do sujeito e da verdade, por meio do problema da constituição dos atos de verdade, pode enriquecer nossa conceitualização e análise das práticas e saberes psi e do papel que desempenham no presente.
Propusemos também que a inclusão do problema do sujeito e da verdade, por meio do problema da constituição dos atos de verdade, pode enriquecer nossa conceitualização e análise das práticas e saberes psi e do papel que desempenham no presente.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, Sociology of Children and Childhood, ADHD (Psychology), Anthropology of Children and Childhood, and 7 moreSTS (Anthropology), Medical Anthropology/ antropología médica, science and technology studies (STS), Tdah, Biosociality, Medicalization, and Critique of Medicalization
Research Interests: Medical Sociology, Sociology of Children and Childhood, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD (Psychology), Child and adolescent mental health, and 13 moreADHD, Critical Psychology, Sociology of Mental Health & Illness, Sociology of Health, Critical Social Psychology, Chile, Sociology of Health and Illness, Critical Public Health, Infancia, Sociología de la salud, Trastorno de deficit de atención e hiperactividad, Trastornos de la infancia y la adolescencia, and Sociology of Biomedicine and Health
La idea de este libro comenzó a mediados del año 2014, cuando un grupo de estudiantes de la Universidad de Oxford quisieron contribuir y difundir lo aprendido durante sus estudios en el Reino Unido. Esta iniciativa responde a un... more
La idea de este libro comenzó a mediados del año 2014, cuando un grupo de estudiantes de la Universidad de Oxford quisieron contribuir y difundir lo aprendido durante sus estudios en el Reino Unido. Esta iniciativa responde a un diagnóstico compartido en torno a la falta de un espacio donde la difusión de ideas y/o propuestas relacionadas con Chile llegaran a un público más amplio que el académico, y cubriera temas que estuvieran fuera de la coyuntura.
Research Interests:
This paper is a theoretical reflection based on the results of two research projects conducted between the years 2010 and 2012 in Chile. Using a theoretical framework inspired by Michel Foucault’s work, and considering findings by the New... more
This paper is a theoretical reflection based on the results of two research projects conducted between the years 2010 and 2012 in Chile. Using a theoretical framework inspired by Michel Foucault’s work, and considering findings by the New Social Studies of Childhood, we stress the relation between biomedical and ‘psy discourses’ and the way children build their identities in relation to labels given to them by these discourses. Using the case of children diagnosed with ADHD, we show how diagnosed children resist being reduced to what specialized discourses coming from biomedicine say about them, especially considering that the diagnostic process does not consider as relevant children’s impressions or opinions about their behaviour. Children resist the biomedical diagnosis by developing new ways to build their identity, which challenge thel descriptions of how ‘ADHD kids’ act and think.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Draft version. Original version available here http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9566.12430/full
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This papers draws on my fieldwork experience with children aged 10 and 11, diagnosed with Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and under pharmacological treatment in a school in Santiago, Chile. ADHD is currently the most... more
This papers draws on my fieldwork experience with children aged 10 and 11, diagnosed with Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and under pharmacological treatment in a school in Santiago, Chile. ADHD is currently the most prevalent mental health disorder in children. Nevertheless, its existence has been challenged by critical approaches to the topic. In addition, the use of stimulant medication to treat the disorder has been publicly questioned, being contested by people arguing that its use correspond to a biological reductionism, whereas the origin of the problem is rather social and economically driven.
ADHD describes a symptomatic constellation which is supposedly disturbing to the well-being of the diagnosed child. Their school performance and difficulty to focus in one task has been described as problematic by specialized literature. Schools normally engages with diagnosed children in particular manners, attempting to boost their interest in school-related contents and topics. However, under the assumption that 'adults know best', both the definition of the problem -the idea of learning and behavioral difficulties- and the framing of the solution -biomedical and pedagogical approaches- leaves out of the picture the experiences and everyday lives of children themselves. In this paper I will explore to what extent are these problems and solutions really problematic or helpful to the diagnosed children. And if they are not helpful at all, how do children define what is problematic? How can adult researchers engage with this, and how can this become helpful when reflecting about research, and about potential solutions to these problems?
ADHD describes a symptomatic constellation which is supposedly disturbing to the well-being of the diagnosed child. Their school performance and difficulty to focus in one task has been described as problematic by specialized literature. Schools normally engages with diagnosed children in particular manners, attempting to boost their interest in school-related contents and topics. However, under the assumption that 'adults know best', both the definition of the problem -the idea of learning and behavioral difficulties- and the framing of the solution -biomedical and pedagogical approaches- leaves out of the picture the experiences and everyday lives of children themselves. In this paper I will explore to what extent are these problems and solutions really problematic or helpful to the diagnosed children. And if they are not helpful at all, how do children define what is problematic? How can adult researchers engage with this, and how can this become helpful when reflecting about research, and about potential solutions to these problems?
Research Interests:
En esta presentación, la cual se encuentra basada en parte de mi investigación doctoral, planteo que es necesario abordar los modos de articulación que permitieron configurar el estado actual del TDAH en Chile. En este proceso, los... more
En esta presentación, la cual se encuentra basada en parte de mi investigación doctoral, planteo que es necesario abordar los modos de articulación que permitieron configurar el estado actual del TDAH en Chile. En este proceso, los determinantes contextuales juegan un rol crucial, que configuran una versión bastante particular de dicho diagnostico en Chile. Sugiero que el TDAH es un diagnóstico global, pero que debe ser entendido a nivel local. Seguir estas trayectorias nacionales permite entender como las determinantes locales dan forma a versiones particulares del trastorno, las cuales se enraízan y articulan con los contextos educacionales, políticos y materiales de nuestro país. Las formas de diagnóstico y de tratamiento, el uso de psicofármacos y los especialistas autorizados a hablar respecto al TDAH, todo esto se ve influencia por características propias del imaginario nacional, que tiñen a esta categoría global del TDAH, produciendo una variante particular y única, nuestro propio TDAH.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The issue of power has been a constant concern for social scientists working with children for the last 20 years. They have argued for the necessity of carefully considering how the child is conceptualized when conducting research,... more
The issue of power has been a constant concern for social scientists working with children for the last 20 years. They have argued for the necessity of carefully considering how the child is conceptualized when conducting research, particularly considering how power asymmetries in the encounter between and adult researcher and children have multiple facets. Children have historically been considered an incomplete version of an adult being, which heavily influences how attributions of expertise and knowledge are distributed not only in the research setting, but also in the everyday life. Children have traditionally been considered as passive, ignorant and incomplete versions of a human being, while adults represent the opposite qualities. Because of the previously mentioned, research with children normally tends to silence their opinions and perspectives, or consider them as merely secondary data to the adults’ point of view. Hence, childhood is normally explored as a reconstructed experience through adults’ eyes, which denies the possibility of children to actively engage in revealing the world they perceive and how they experience it.
In this presentation I aim to tackle how children engage with power asymmetries in relation to their own everyday experiences in accordance with their own reports. In order to do so, I will use some of the findings from my ethnographic fieldwork, which engaged children diagnosed with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) inside a school. Children with a diagnosis have to deal not only with ‘being a child’, but also with living through a diagnostic label which alters how the school reflects upon and treats these children. Children however, are not passive individuals. My findings reveal that they resist these power asymmetries in a multitude of ways: ranging from how they interact with their teachers, to how they engage with medication given to target ADHD. Power, as it is revealed in my fieldwork, is much more heterogeneous than expected, and children are constantly, surreptitiously, and actively engaging with it.
In this presentation I aim to tackle how children engage with power asymmetries in relation to their own everyday experiences in accordance with their own reports. In order to do so, I will use some of the findings from my ethnographic fieldwork, which engaged children diagnosed with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) inside a school. Children with a diagnosis have to deal not only with ‘being a child’, but also with living through a diagnostic label which alters how the school reflects upon and treats these children. Children however, are not passive individuals. My findings reveal that they resist these power asymmetries in a multitude of ways: ranging from how they interact with their teachers, to how they engage with medication given to target ADHD. Power, as it is revealed in my fieldwork, is much more heterogeneous than expected, and children are constantly, surreptitiously, and actively engaging with it.
Research Interests:
During the 20th century, biomedicine has become more and more influential on its relationships with multiple areas of everyday life. The introduction of new concepts, technologies and rationalities that have come entailed to this surge... more
During the 20th century, biomedicine has become more and more influential on its relationships with multiple areas of everyday life. The introduction of new concepts, technologies and rationalities that have come entailed to this surge has been closely examined by social scientists and different kind of experts, who have welcomed these news with expectation, and sometimes, with certain mistrust. On its relations with childhood, most of the analyses have been cautious when facing the potentialities that come along the hype of biomedicine, especially when it comes to psychiatry. This is driven mostly because they fear that biomedicine plays a normalizing role when it comes to human differences, especially in a group considered to be ‘vulnerable’, and socially located as closer to a state of nature, who might get compromised by these bio-scientific rationality. In this presentation, I will explore some of the results of my ethnographic work inside a school with children medicated with stimulant medication. By presenting excerpts of my ethnographic experience with the ‘quintos básicos’ (children aged 10 and 11), I aim to reveal mainly two core elements in order to re-locate the discussion about biomedicine and its relations with childhood. First, that biomedical knowledge and medications are a common element in children’s everyday lives, therefore there is no thing such a colonization or external invasion of their daily lives. Second, that in some cases the use of psychostimulant medication can enable new ways of agency on children consuming the medication. Using contributions from Science and Technology Studies, the anthropology of pharmaceuticals and the sociology of childhood, I propose that we are currently at a time where it is necessary to re-locate the discussion about the interaction between biomedicine, childhood and the use of medication, in an attempt to rescue the hybrid character of childhood, hence giving room to analyse the potential benefits that this interaction can entail.
Research Interests:
Historically, interactions between children and biomedicine have been framed in different ways. These interactions can be viewed as beneficial when biomedicine offers answers and treatments for illness, unease, and pain. But when it comes... more
Historically, interactions between children and biomedicine have been framed in different ways. These interactions can be viewed as beneficial when biomedicine offers answers and treatments for illness, unease, and pain. But when it comes to the relations between children and mental health the frame is often constructed as threatening. Social scientists, under the influence of the medicalization thesis, began to think that this relation is potentially hazardous: that children’s consumption of stimulant medication should be considered as potential harmful and unsafe, especially since it may affect ‘the child’s true self’. In this presentation I aim to explore how this discussion makes necessary our reflection upon not only children’s use of medication, but also what it is to be a child in Chile, and how biomedicine is perceived as a potential threat to what is considered ‘the natural state of childhood’. Medication, its ingestion, and its potential effects blur the boundary between the limits of the child, and the effects of the medication. In order to explore this subject, I draw upon my fieldwork with medicated children and their practices in the context of the classroom. My analysis is inspired by different theoretical backgrounds that have emphasized mutual determinations between medication and individuals, such as the anthropology of pharmaceuticals and science and technology studies
Research Interests:
Elaborating on some contributions made by different bodies of work, such as Science and Technology Studies, Anthropology of Pharmaceuticals, New Social Studies of Childhood, and empirical data obtained via ethnographic research in a... more
Elaborating on some contributions made by different bodies of work, such as Science and Technology Studies, Anthropology of Pharmaceuticals, New Social Studies of Childhood, and empirical data obtained via ethnographic research in a Chilean School, this presentation examines how children and psycho-‐stimulants, such as Ritalin, interact with and influence each other and how this effects
children’s interactions with other classroom actors.
In the last two decades Ritalin has become a major issue in the Chilean context, reaching high rates of consumption, which places Chile in the top ten consuming countries worldwide. However along with the increasing consumption
of medication, it is possible to find an increasing resistance
by different groups of actors who have become more visible
during the last years.
I claim that behind both positions, those in favour of children taking medication and those who oppose them,
what can be found is a different understanding of what
a child is, and how he/she should be treated and considered
by other social actors. Finally, I attempt to show how,
by taking into consideration some contributions made by
social scientists working in relation to biomedicine, it is
possible to consider children’s use of psycho‐stimulant
medication as something that allows the emergence of
both positive and negative effects, being necessary not
to dismiss medication as something ‘bad' in itself, but
rather to produce more nuanced analysis of why and
under what circumstances medication should be given
to a child.
children’s interactions with other classroom actors.
In the last two decades Ritalin has become a major issue in the Chilean context, reaching high rates of consumption, which places Chile in the top ten consuming countries worldwide. However along with the increasing consumption
of medication, it is possible to find an increasing resistance
by different groups of actors who have become more visible
during the last years.
I claim that behind both positions, those in favour of children taking medication and those who oppose them,
what can be found is a different understanding of what
a child is, and how he/she should be treated and considered
by other social actors. Finally, I attempt to show how,
by taking into consideration some contributions made by
social scientists working in relation to biomedicine, it is
possible to consider children’s use of psycho‐stimulant
medication as something that allows the emergence of
both positive and negative effects, being necessary not
to dismiss medication as something ‘bad' in itself, but
rather to produce more nuanced analysis of why and
under what circumstances medication should be given
to a child.
Research Interests:
Tal como ha sido denunciado por diversos actores del medio nacional, durante los últmos años Chile ha presenciando un incremento en lo concerniente a l consumo de psicoestmulantes por parte de niños y adolescentes. Este incremento en el... more
Tal como ha sido denunciado por diversos actores del medio nacional, durante los últmos años Chile ha presenciando un incremento en lo concerniente a l consumo de psicoestmulantes por parte de niños y adolescentes. Este incremento en el consumo ha sido observado con recelo y cautela por muchos, y directamente atacado por otros al considerarse que detrás del mismo, lo que se esconde son intentos de normalización y medicalización de niños que realmente no requieren tratamiento farmacológico. El
principal motor detrás de estos argumentos es el temor que produce la relación entre los niños y el uso de psicofármacos, los que se argumenta aplanan la subjetvidad de los mismos, incluso llegando a transformarlos en ajenos a ellos mismos. Sin embargo, existen otras formas de pensar esta problemátca
interacción entre los fármacos como el Ritalín y la infancia, que se ancla en la idea de que estas relaciones no son solamente restrictivas, sino que también potencialmente consttuyente de nuevos fenómenos que pueden ser positvos tanto para los niños como para su entorno
principal motor detrás de estos argumentos es el temor que produce la relación entre los niños y el uso de psicofármacos, los que se argumenta aplanan la subjetvidad de los mismos, incluso llegando a transformarlos en ajenos a ellos mismos. Sin embargo, existen otras formas de pensar esta problemátca
interacción entre los fármacos como el Ritalín y la infancia, que se ancla en la idea de que estas relaciones no son solamente restrictivas, sino que también potencialmente consttuyente de nuevos fenómenos que pueden ser positvos tanto para los niños como para su entorno
Research Interests:
"This research tried to examine the problem of the high prevalence of ADHD in Chile, not only from the perspective of an analysis of policy, documents and schemes of treatments and diagnosis. It also intend to tackle the issue of how do... more
"This research tried to examine the problem of the high prevalence of ADHD in Chile, not only from the perspective of an analysis of policy, documents and schemes of treatments and diagnosis. It also intend to tackle the issue of how do the actual subjects diagnosed with ADHD deal with their diagnosis, and with all the implications that it has in their everyday lives.
"
"
Research Interests:
Estudio CUIDAR: Reporte nº4 - ¿Qué es cuidar?, 2020. ¿Cómo ha cambiado la percepción de lo que es el cuidado? En este último reporte abordamos está interrogante a partir de los resultados del Estudio CUIDAR. Hicimos esta pregunta abierta... more
Estudio CUIDAR: Reporte nº4 - ¿Qué es cuidar?, 2020.
¿Cómo ha cambiado la percepción de lo que es el cuidado? En este último reporte abordamos está interrogante a partir de los resultados del Estudio CUIDAR. Hicimos esta pregunta abierta a los encuestados y encuestadas que declararon que su percepción de lo que es el cuidado (personal o de otros) había cambiado, a partir de su experiencia general en el último mes. Las respuestas fueron codificadas y agrupadas temáticamente.
¿Cómo ha cambiado la percepción de lo que es el cuidado? En este último reporte abordamos está interrogante a partir de los resultados del Estudio CUIDAR. Hicimos esta pregunta abierta a los encuestados y encuestadas que declararon que su percepción de lo que es el cuidado (personal o de otros) había cambiado, a partir de su experiencia general en el último mes. Las respuestas fueron codificadas y agrupadas temáticamente.
Research Interests:
El tercer reporte que emerge del estudio CUIDAR presenta los datos más significativos que levantó el estudio relacionados con los encuestados y encuestadas que reportaron vivir con al menos un niño o niña menor de 12 años en el hogar y... more
El tercer reporte que emerge del estudio CUIDAR presenta los datos más significativos que levantó el estudio relacionados con los encuestados y encuestadas que reportaron vivir con al menos un niño o niña menor de 12 años en el hogar y las vidas cotidianas de niños(as).
Research Interests:
Este reporte se desprende de Estudio CUIDAR, encuesta aplicada en el mes de mayo de 2020. En este reporte se presentan los datos más significativos que levantó el estudio en lo concerniente a las mujeres que
participaron.
participaron.
Research Interests:
Primer reporte con resultados de la encuesta CUIDAR: Estudio sobre tiempos, formas, y espacios de cuidado en casa durante la pandemia
Research Interests:
Nuestro punto es, sin embargo, que KidZania y muchos de sus críticos tienden a soslayar un punto clave en el asunto: ¿qué tipo de niño o de infancia se está o no suponiendo al establecer esta “ciudad de los niños”? Creemos que se dibuja... more
Nuestro punto es, sin embargo, que KidZania y muchos de sus críticos tienden a soslayar un punto clave en el asunto: ¿qué tipo de niño o de infancia se está o no suponiendo al establecer
esta “ciudad de los niños”? Creemos que se dibuja una ausencia: la del niño como sujeto.
esta “ciudad de los niños”? Creemos que se dibuja una ausencia: la del niño como sujeto.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Durante su transcurso, las ciencias sociales se han visto cautivadas, una y otra vez, por la pregunta acerca del sujeto y la subjetividad. Ya sea que esta fascinación fuera motivada por un afán de comprensión, de diferenciación, de... more
Durante su transcurso, las ciencias sociales se han visto cautivadas, una y otra vez, por la pregunta acerca del sujeto y la subjetividad. Ya sea que esta fascinación fuera motivada por un afán de comprensión, de diferenciación, de liberación o de intervención, diversas autoras y autores se han detenido en la pregunta por el sujeto y los efectos que sus diversas composiciones provocan en la vida social. De variados movimientos intelectuales y sociales hemos aprendido que el ser humano no es neutral. Creerlo neutral y universal es, de hecho, lo que ha limitado su problematización. Los mundos tecnocientíficos pero también vergonzosamente desiguales y distópicos que vivimos, nos demandan terminar con ese inmovilismo disfrazado de neutralidad. Por ello, en parte, seguir interrogando al sujeto se vuelve una tarea prioritaria para el ejercicio de unas ciencias sociales críticas y propositivas.
Research Interests:
Attention deficit−hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been a common psychiatric diagnosis in both children and adults since the 1980s and 1990s in the United States. But the diagnosis was much less common—even unknown—in other parts of the... more
Attention deficit−hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been a common psychiatric diagnosis in both children and adults since the 1980s and 1990s in the United States. But the diagnosis was much less common—even unknown—in other parts of the world. By the end of the twentieth century, this was no longer the case, and ADHD diagnosis and treatment became an increasingly widespread global phenomenon. As the diagnosis was adopted around the world, the definition and treatment of ADHD often changed in the context of different psychiatric professions, medical systems, and cultures.
Global Perspectives on ADHD is the first book to examine how this expanding public health concern is diagnosed and treated in 16 different countries. In some countries, readers learn, over 10% of school-aged children and adolescents are diagnosed with ADHD; in others, that figure is less than 1%. Some countries focus on medicating children with ADHD; others emphasize parent intervention or child therapy. Showing how a medical diagnosis varies across contexts and time periods, this book explains how those distinctions shape medical interventions and guidelines, filling a much-needed gap by examining ADHD on an international scale.
Global Perspectives on ADHD is the first book to examine how this expanding public health concern is diagnosed and treated in 16 different countries. In some countries, readers learn, over 10% of school-aged children and adolescents are diagnosed with ADHD; in others, that figure is less than 1%. Some countries focus on medicating children with ADHD; others emphasize parent intervention or child therapy. Showing how a medical diagnosis varies across contexts and time periods, this book explains how those distinctions shape medical interventions and guidelines, filling a much-needed gap by examining ADHD on an international scale.
Research Interests: Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, Sociology of Children and Childhood, Child and adolescent mental health, Children and Families, and 12 moreADHD, Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing, STS (Anthropology), Public Health, Transcultural Psychiatry, Sociology of Health and Illness, Psychostimulants, Diagnosis, Medical Sociology, Medicalization, Special Education, Autism, Adhd, Faculty Development, Behavior Modification, Cognitive Behavior Modification, Learning Disabilities, Critical Neuroscience, Family and Community Medicine, and Global Mental Health Issues
Durante su transcurso, las ciencias sociales se han visto cautivadas, una y otra vez, por la pregunta acerca del sujeto y la subjetividad. Ya sea que esta fascinación fuera motivada por un afán de comprensión, de diferenciación, de... more
Durante su transcurso, las ciencias sociales se han visto cautivadas, una y otra vez, por la pregunta acerca del sujeto y la subjetividad. Ya sea que esta fascinación fuera motivada por un afán de comprensión, de diferenciación, de liberación o de intervención, diversas autoras y autores se han detenido en la pregunta por el sujeto y los efectos que sus diversas composiciones provocan en la vida social. De variados movimientos intelectuales y sociales hemos aprendido que el ser humano no es neutral. Creerlo neutral y universal es, de hecho, lo que ha limitado su problematización. Los mundos tecnocientíficos pero también vergonzosamente desiguales y distópicos que vivimos, nos demandan terminar con ese inmovilismo disfrazado de neutralidad. Por ello, en parte, seguir interrogando al sujeto se vuelve una tarea prioritaria para el ejercicio de unas ciencias sociales críticas y propositivas.
Research Interests:
Imaginamos este libro, como una contribución a una reflexión que recupere lo mejor de la tradición crítica, problematizadora e historizante de la medicalización de la sociedad, pero que ofrezca múltiples panoramas actualizados, rigurosos... more
Imaginamos este libro, como una contribución a una reflexión que recupere lo mejor de la tradición crítica, problematizadora e historizante de la medicalización de la sociedad, pero que ofrezca múltiples panoramas actualizados, rigurosos y exhaustivos para observar estos procesos en la Argentina y en los países que
componen el sur de América Latina.
Esperamos sinceramente que la lectura de este volumen se constituya en un disparador que ofrezca claves de diferente índole para aproximarse a los problemas relacionados con la medicalización de las infancias. Claves teóricas, fundadas en reflexiones profundas acerca de los límites y posibilidades analíticas que pueden ofrecer las ciencias sociales para pensar estos temas. Claves metodológicas, que permitan poner de relieve la importancia de diseños de investigación flexibles y que abreven a la comprensión de los complejos fenómenos medicalizadores. Claves, en todos los casos, que resulten útiles para aproximarse al análisis de problemáticas empíricas.
Postulamos la relevancia de realizar estudios basados en el análisis de fenómenos empíricos en la región, que abran posibilidades no sólo de comprensión de tales fenómenos, sino que contribuyan a delinear contornos específicos y posibilidades analíticas propias de América Latina. En función de ello, consideramos que es necesario alentar la construcción de diálogos fructíferos que conduzcan al mutuo enriquecimiento de los estudios provenientes de diversas regiones incorporando referentes insoslayables en la perspectiva considerada. En este sentido, la participación de integrantes de nuestro equipo en el libro "Global perspectives on ADHD. Social dimensions of diagnosis and treatment in sixteen countries", compilado por Meredith Bergey, Angela Filipe, Peter Conrad e Ilina Singh, constituyó un punto de partida que nos permitió poner en diálogo lo sucedido en Argentina con países de los cinco continentes. También, y como resultado de las experiencias investigativas, refrendamos nuestra propuesta de profundizar y recentrar las investigaciones en el análisis de algunos desprendimientos de la perspectiva de la medicalización, tales como la biomedicalización, la farmacologización y la sociología del diagnóstico, que el libro aborda a partir de algunas sistematizaciones de lecturas realizadas en dichas claves. Así fue que, como parte del contenido, y poniendo en diálogo con nuestra investigación de Argentina, invitamos a equipos que estudian diferentes experiencias nacionales sobre medicalización de la infancia en el sur de nuestro continente, una región relevante en América Latina no sólo por su extensión, sino por el hecho de que tiene valores elevados en algunos de los principales indicadores de desempeño social y económico. Se considera la región macro más próspera de América Latina, con una alta esperanza de vida, el índice de desarrollo humano más elevado y un alto nivel de vida, así como con una participación significativa en los mercados mundiales. Pero, a la vez, una zona que tiene profundas desigualdades, y en ese contexto el sistema de salud en general y de salud mental en particular es muy representativo de dichas inequidades. Creemos que la contribución de los investigadores en este campo es un hito relevante y establecerá ricos intercambios a futuro con otras producciones.
componen el sur de América Latina.
Esperamos sinceramente que la lectura de este volumen se constituya en un disparador que ofrezca claves de diferente índole para aproximarse a los problemas relacionados con la medicalización de las infancias. Claves teóricas, fundadas en reflexiones profundas acerca de los límites y posibilidades analíticas que pueden ofrecer las ciencias sociales para pensar estos temas. Claves metodológicas, que permitan poner de relieve la importancia de diseños de investigación flexibles y que abreven a la comprensión de los complejos fenómenos medicalizadores. Claves, en todos los casos, que resulten útiles para aproximarse al análisis de problemáticas empíricas.
Postulamos la relevancia de realizar estudios basados en el análisis de fenómenos empíricos en la región, que abran posibilidades no sólo de comprensión de tales fenómenos, sino que contribuyan a delinear contornos específicos y posibilidades analíticas propias de América Latina. En función de ello, consideramos que es necesario alentar la construcción de diálogos fructíferos que conduzcan al mutuo enriquecimiento de los estudios provenientes de diversas regiones incorporando referentes insoslayables en la perspectiva considerada. En este sentido, la participación de integrantes de nuestro equipo en el libro "Global perspectives on ADHD. Social dimensions of diagnosis and treatment in sixteen countries", compilado por Meredith Bergey, Angela Filipe, Peter Conrad e Ilina Singh, constituyó un punto de partida que nos permitió poner en diálogo lo sucedido en Argentina con países de los cinco continentes. También, y como resultado de las experiencias investigativas, refrendamos nuestra propuesta de profundizar y recentrar las investigaciones en el análisis de algunos desprendimientos de la perspectiva de la medicalización, tales como la biomedicalización, la farmacologización y la sociología del diagnóstico, que el libro aborda a partir de algunas sistematizaciones de lecturas realizadas en dichas claves. Así fue que, como parte del contenido, y poniendo en diálogo con nuestra investigación de Argentina, invitamos a equipos que estudian diferentes experiencias nacionales sobre medicalización de la infancia en el sur de nuestro continente, una región relevante en América Latina no sólo por su extensión, sino por el hecho de que tiene valores elevados en algunos de los principales indicadores de desempeño social y económico. Se considera la región macro más próspera de América Latina, con una alta esperanza de vida, el índice de desarrollo humano más elevado y un alto nivel de vida, así como con una participación significativa en los mercados mundiales. Pero, a la vez, una zona que tiene profundas desigualdades, y en ese contexto el sistema de salud en general y de salud mental en particular es muy representativo de dichas inequidades. Creemos que la contribución de los investigadores en este campo es un hito relevante y establecerá ricos intercambios a futuro con otras producciones.
Research Interests:
Resumen: el objetivo de este artículo es mostrar cómo el incremento de las labores de cuidado, producto de la pandemia, y el quiebre de la red de cuidados han recaído significativamente sobre las mujeres. Al reconocer la crisis de los... more
Resumen: el objetivo de este artículo es mostrar cómo el incremento de las labores de cuidado, producto de la pandemia, y el quiebre de la red de cuidados han recaído significativamente sobre las mujeres. Al reconocer la crisis de los cuidados, que ha privilegiado un modelo individualista por sobre uno social o comunitario, la pandemia de la covid-19 revela las sobrecargas de un tipo de sujeto y las imposibilidades para pensar otras formas de cuidar. Mediante la presentación de algunos resultados, obtenidos por la encuesta Cuidar, realizada en Chile en mayo de 2020, en un contexto de cuarentena estricta, cierre de establecimientos educacionales y medidas de distanciamiento social, discutimos la participación de las mujeres en entramados de prácticas de cuidado que se van tornando cada vez más frágiles. Si consideramos que las mujeres son actores clave en estas articulaciones, la precarización de su calidad de vida afecta la capacidad misma de la red para sostener y cuidar y, por ende, la capacidad de las mujeres para cuidar tanto de sí mismas como de otros. Es decir, la pandemia no solo muestra un conjunto de prácticas que se desarticula y reorganiza, sino que, dada su organización privatizada y concentrada en un tipo de individuo, se hace mucho más frágil en tanto que depende casi exclusivamente de un sujeto cuyas posibilidades de repensarse o rearticularse son menores o limitadas.
Palabras clave: crisis de los cuidados, cuidados, género, pandemia, prácticas.
The Im-Possibilities of Care: Reconstructions of Care in the COVID-19 Pandemic Based on the Experience of Women in Chile
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to highlight that the increase in caregiving tasks, as a result of the pandemic and the breakdown of the care network, have fallen most heavily on women. By recognizing the crisis of care, which has privileged an individualistic model over a social or community model, the covid-19 pandemic reveals the overburdening of one type of subject and the impossibilities of thinking about other forms of care. By presenting some of the results obtained via the Cuidar survey, conducted in Chile in May 2020, in a context of strict quarantine, closure of educational establishments and social distancing measures, we discuss the participation of women in care practices that are becoming increasingly fragile. If we consider that women are key actors in these articulations, the precariousness of their quality of life affects the very capacity of the network to sustain and care and, therefore, women’s capacity to care for themselves as well as for others. In other words, the pandemic reveals not only a set of practices that is disarticulated and reorganized, but also that, given its privatized organization and concentration in one type of individual, it becomes much more fragile in that it depends almost exclusively on a subject whose possibilities of rethinking or rearticulating itself are reduced or limited.
Keywords: Care, care crisis, gender, pandemic, practices.
Im-possibilidades do cuidado: reconstruções do cuidar na pandemia da covid-19 a partir da experiência de mulheres no Chile
Resumo: o objetivo deste artigo é mostrar como o aumento dos trabalhos de cuidado, produto da pandemia ocasionada pela covid-19, e a quebra da rede de cuidados vêm recaindo significativamente sobre as mulheres. Ao reconhecer a crise dos cuidados, que tem privilegiado um modelo individualista sobre um social ou comunitário, a pandemia revela as sobrecargas de um tipo de sujeito e as impossibilidades para pensar outras formas de cuidar. A partir da apresentação de alguns resultados, obtidos pela pesquisa “Cuidar”, realizada no Chile em maio de 2020, num contexto de quarentena estrita, fechamento do comércio e estabelecimentos educacionais, e medidas de distanciamento social, discutimos a participação de mulheres em tramas de práticas de cuidado que vão se tornando cada vez mais frágeis. Se considerarmos que as mulheres são atores-chave nessas articulações, a precarização de sua qualidade de vida afeta a capacidade da rede de apoiar e cuidar e, por consequência, a capacidade das mulheres de cuidar tanto de si mesmas quanto de outros. Isto é, a pandemia não somente mostra um conjunto de práticas que é desarticulado e reorganizado, mas também, tendo em vista sua organização privatizada e concentrada num tipo de indivíduo, se faz muito mais frágil ao passo que depende quase exclusivamente de um sujeito cujas possibilidades de repensar-se ou rearticular-se são menores ou limitadas.
Palavras-chave: crise dos cuidados, cuidados, gênero, pandemia, práticas.
Palabras clave: crisis de los cuidados, cuidados, género, pandemia, prácticas.
The Im-Possibilities of Care: Reconstructions of Care in the COVID-19 Pandemic Based on the Experience of Women in Chile
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to highlight that the increase in caregiving tasks, as a result of the pandemic and the breakdown of the care network, have fallen most heavily on women. By recognizing the crisis of care, which has privileged an individualistic model over a social or community model, the covid-19 pandemic reveals the overburdening of one type of subject and the impossibilities of thinking about other forms of care. By presenting some of the results obtained via the Cuidar survey, conducted in Chile in May 2020, in a context of strict quarantine, closure of educational establishments and social distancing measures, we discuss the participation of women in care practices that are becoming increasingly fragile. If we consider that women are key actors in these articulations, the precariousness of their quality of life affects the very capacity of the network to sustain and care and, therefore, women’s capacity to care for themselves as well as for others. In other words, the pandemic reveals not only a set of practices that is disarticulated and reorganized, but also that, given its privatized organization and concentration in one type of individual, it becomes much more fragile in that it depends almost exclusively on a subject whose possibilities of rethinking or rearticulating itself are reduced or limited.
Keywords: Care, care crisis, gender, pandemic, practices.
Im-possibilidades do cuidado: reconstruções do cuidar na pandemia da covid-19 a partir da experiência de mulheres no Chile
Resumo: o objetivo deste artigo é mostrar como o aumento dos trabalhos de cuidado, produto da pandemia ocasionada pela covid-19, e a quebra da rede de cuidados vêm recaindo significativamente sobre as mulheres. Ao reconhecer a crise dos cuidados, que tem privilegiado um modelo individualista sobre um social ou comunitário, a pandemia revela as sobrecargas de um tipo de sujeito e as impossibilidades para pensar outras formas de cuidar. A partir da apresentação de alguns resultados, obtidos pela pesquisa “Cuidar”, realizada no Chile em maio de 2020, num contexto de quarentena estrita, fechamento do comércio e estabelecimentos educacionais, e medidas de distanciamento social, discutimos a participação de mulheres em tramas de práticas de cuidado que vão se tornando cada vez mais frágeis. Se considerarmos que as mulheres são atores-chave nessas articulações, a precarização de sua qualidade de vida afeta a capacidade da rede de apoiar e cuidar e, por consequência, a capacidade das mulheres de cuidar tanto de si mesmas quanto de outros. Isto é, a pandemia não somente mostra um conjunto de práticas que é desarticulado e reorganizado, mas também, tendo em vista sua organização privatizada e concentrada num tipo de indivíduo, se faz muito mais frágil ao passo que depende quase exclusivamente de um sujeito cujas possibilidades de repensar-se ou rearticular-se são menores ou limitadas.
Palavras-chave: crise dos cuidados, cuidados, gênero, pandemia, práticas.