O desenvolvimento do idoso e a teoria histórico-cultural: a atividade e o cotidiano na mediação do envelhecimento

Abstract

This thesis, inscribed in the line of research Theories of Education and Pedagogical Processes of the Graduate Program in Education at PUC Goiás, has as its theme the study of the elderly in their relationship with Activity, seeking to reflect on how daily Activities contribute to the his development as a human subject. The thesis has the general objective of understanding and reflecting on the development of the elderly subject and their daily activities based on the assumptions of the Historical-Cultural Theory (THC). It is understood that the foundations of this theory problematize the process of human aging not only as a biological-natural phenomenon, but, above all, social, historical and cultural. In this way, the influences of the environment, mainly its socioeconomic determinations, arising from society capitalism have had great repercussions on the elderly subject, given the global demographic changes that point to a growth trend in the elderly population with consequences for the production process. However, it is observed that, under the production model of capitalist society, aging is treated in a generalized and naturalized way, disseminating the vision of a type of old age idealized, hiding the historical conditions that reveal the contradictions for aging within this society. Thus, taking this problem as the background context for this thesis, we opted for a theoretical, bibliographical and documental study, having the THC and its main authors (Vygotsky, Leontiev, Luria, Elkonin, Davydov, Hedegaard and Engeström) as a theoretical reference and the analysis of the social situation of the elderly based on official documents from international and national organizations, added to statistical data, such as those from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). In the analysis of theses and dissertations in the Capes Catalog, an attempt was made to carry out a state-of-knowledge investigation to understand how the specialized academic literature is approaching the problem of the elderly subject and his development. 32 studies were identified, based on pre-defined descriptors, which were analyzed based on the THC bases, which contributed to reflect on the topic at hand. Therefore, the thesis was structured in three chapters. Where we brought the theoretical foundation with the presentation of generations of THC authors, seeking to understand how Activity Theory was developed to identify elements that could help the elderly think. We present the understanding of the elderly subject from the aging process, in the historical course and taking the current reality from the statistical and official data. We present the state of knowledge as the point of arrival, presenting the existing gaps in the studies referring to the elderly from the perspective of THC. The results of this theoretical research allow us to state that the Activity is fundamental for the development of the elderly; however, there is not a natural type of old age, but old age, which are determined by socioeconomic and historical-cultural conditions, as well as, the Activity mobilizes the subject to his development throughout his life in a way that, under the command of society capitalist, it is necessary to understand the importance of the activity of the elderly in their daily lives, from a counter-hegemonic conception of the aging process