Care, Citizenship, and Health Promotion in Vulnerable Contexts
Nursing Care. Citizenship. Health Promotion. Health Vulnerability. Health Education.
This dissertation, developed within the Postgraduate Program in Public Health at UFRN in the form of a collection of articles, analyzes the relationships between care, citizenship, and health promotion in contexts of social and institutional vulnerability. The research articulates four qualitative studies: a theoretical-reflective essay on academic suffering in postgraduate studies; a theoretical essay proposing a critical dialogue between Pierre Bourdieu and Paulo Freire regarding educational inequalities and emancipation; an experience report on the application of the educational technology PREVINIX, associated with a booklet, in promoting the sexual health of 46 adolescents in public schools in Rio Grande do Norte; and an experience report derived from discussion groups with 18 people, 15 of whom were living with HIV, in a community institution in Ceará. The theoretical frameworks guiding the analyses are the contributions of Paulo Freire on dialogical education, Pierre Bourdieu on social reproduction and symbolic violence, José Ricardo Ayres on care and vulnerability, and Richard Parker on stigma. The results show that: academic suffering expresses institutional vulnerabilities and productivism, demanding permanent care policies; the articulation between Bourdieu and Freire reveals the tension between reproduction and transformation in the educational field; the combination of the PREVINIX game with the booklet proved effective for the engagement and critical reflection of adolescents, with 82% of collective decisions converging towards preventive behaviors; and the narratives of people living with HIV point to qualified listening as a fundamental relational technology for confronting stigma and producing humanized care. The final considerations synthesize the convergences between the studies, highlighting that care and education practices guided by dialogue, autonomy, and citizenship constitute powerful paths for equitable responses to contemporary vulnerabilities in the field of Public Health.