Mosaicos da vida urbana : envelhecer(es) em Belo Horizonte e suas iniquidades intraurbanas

Abstract

We are part of a generation that experiences, for the first time, a longer old age that demands urgent reflections and actions regarding its quality and dignity of life. In this process, life trajectories are individually intertwined with social, political, and economic contexts, characterizing different ways of aging, requiring adaptations, financial resources, assistance, and care. In this context: where are the people who have survived for over 60 years? In what socioeconomic conditions do they find themselves? Overcoming what challenges? The focus of this research was to identify the different ways of aging in the city of Belo Horizonte (MG), their territorial manifestations, and the access to health and social assistance. Changes in family composition and the growth of this population group demand more than a discussion of the social production of stereotypes about the aging processes; they call for actions that promote better health conditions and interaction with the built and social environment. We aim to understand how these changes can provide different conditions for aging, niches of socio-spatial segregation, and contexts of intra-urban inequalities for the population aged 60 and over, in the Human Development Units in Belo Horizonte, in the years 2010, 2022, and 2023. To achieve this, we developed spatial analyses regarding their variations in demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics. We investigated, through semi-structured interviews, the narratives of four groups of interlocutors – public administrators, health and social assistance workers, civil society representatives, and people aged 60 and over - regarding aging in the city. The sociodemographic characteristics revealed territorial patterns that can be significantly associated with socio-spatial segregation and inequalities that impact aging. For Belo Horizonte, according to the 2010 census data, the highest aging rates and the best socioeconomic indicators predominate in the Mid-South region and surrounding neighborhoods. At the same time, the regions of Venda Nova, North, and Barreiro present the worst indicators, as well as some villages, slums, and peripheral neighborhoods, which are distributed, in lower concentration, throughout the city. This trend is in dialogue with various findings narrated during the semi-structured interviews. Multiple forms of old age were perceived, diverse contexts were lived, in an urban fabric that blends individuality and life purposes with collectivity, survival strategies, and the pursuit of maintaining a life with dignity, quality, and health. We highlight the role and importance of support networks, care, access to information, health, social assistance, culture, and leisure to achieve active and healthy aging; and equally, we point out the harshness of the miseries experienced by people aged 60 and over, crossed by social inequality, violence, loneliness, rupture of bonds, abandonment, isolation due to covid-19, ageism, emotional illness, and difficulty accessing long-term care institutions. The research reflects living and aging in a city that is evidently not prepared for such a reality. Additionally, during the Covid-19 syndemic, it relied on the SUS-BH network to withstand the necropolitics practiced in the previous Brazilian federal government (2019 – 2022). The evidence and reflections brought forth expand the understanding of a complex network of factors that affect the different aging conditions in Belo Horizonte. Therefore, its content may support the reformulation of public policies that can intersectorally work and provide an urban environment of higher quality of life for people, especially those aged 60 and over.