Reconhecimento e Deliberação: as lutas das pessoas atingidas pela hanseniase em diferentes âmbitos interacionais

Abstract

This dissertation discusses the struggles of people affected by Hansens Disease in different interactional loci. First, it explores the existence of several layers of meaning that contribute to the enduring stigmatization of these individuals. Drawing from the Habermasian interpretation of lifeworld, it discusses the entrenchment of negative meanings in cultural stocks, social practices and personality structures. In addition, it seeks to demonstrate how identities may be politically mobilized with the aim of overcoming disrespect. Based on recent developments in critical theory and democratic theory, the dissertation proposes the notion of deliberative struggles for recognition, which in turn defends the continuous revision of intersubjective relations through discursive exchanges. It is argued that a central element of these struggles is their manifestation in several spheres of interlocution, which are interwoven with each other. From this perspective, the dissertation investigates three of the issues that are at the heart of the struggles of those affected by Hansens Disease: the future of former colonies, the access to financial resources and the problem of stigma. It seeks to understand how these issues are discursively mobilized in the three contexts of communication: (1) informal conversations in former leprosaria in the Brazilian states of Acre, Ceará and Minas Gerais; (2) issues of a newsletter produced by a social movement (Jornal do Morhan) between 1998 and 2007; and (3) stories published by two daily newspapers with national circulation (Folha de S. Pau lo and O Globo) in the same period. A qualitative analysis of discursive content was conducted, following three steps: initial description, coding of the dimensions of recognition, and comparison of findings from the different spheres investigated. The research findings can be grouped according to four main focuses: (1) With regard to the notion of recognition, the investigation discovered: (a) the possibility of tensions within and among different realms of recognition; (b) the recursive character of the link between intersubjective relations and self-relations; (c) the importance of social esteem for the attainment of justice; d) the fruitfulness of using the realms of recognition as empirical tools. (2) With regard to the notion of deliberation, the research highlighted: a) the inexistence of deliberative processes in the absence of debates within loci and/or across them; b) the ambivalence of the task of translation, which, in producing general discourses, may miss the specificities of problems. (3) With regard to the loci studied, the research showed: a) the existence of many tensions in informal conversations and the prevalence of the so called opinions in perspective; b) the activists concern in demonstrating their own struggles and in translating their demands, besides the reiteration of specific positions; c) the preponderance of the health framing by the media, which essentially involves the removal of tensions and struggles, and is based on the adoption of dogmatic discourses. (4) With regard to the struggles regarding Hansens disease, the dissertation points to an ambivalent process, which is full of ebbs and flows. The research findings suggested that these struggles would benefit from a deliberative development of issues and the transformation of them into public issues.