Encontros e despedidas: o “envelhecimento ativo” a partir das práticas de mulheres idosas em João Pessoa

Abstract

Aging in the contemporary society is considered a heterogeneous phenomenon. Currenty we deal with many types of experiences, demands and nomenclatures on “being old”. Debates on “Old age” contribute to the health discourse on "active aging". Actually, it is gaining its stake. The term "active aging" has been adopted by the World Health Organization - WHO since the late 90s with a proposal to reframe our conception on getting age. WHO recommends this phase of life must be experienced in accordance with needs and resources, mainly with the objective to increase the expectation of healthy life, as the openning of new public and private spaces for old Women and Men. However, we ask if the discourse of “active aging” would be a traditional way of generation homogenizing demanding a specific type of behavior. The objective of this work is to understand how the new forms of biopower play in this phase of life from a gender perspective. By the methodology, we considered a survey carried out at two places: the “Centro de Convivência do Idoso – CCI” and the Chorinho of Rio Branco Square in João Pessoa City, Paraíba, Brazil. The objective of this survey was to understand the motivations of the old women to search and to remain in those types of spaces. The results pointed old women seek new ways to socialize with the social environment after some kind of disruption in their personal life such as divorce, death, children independence and so on. These spaces contributes to new experiences in the living and fun spaces as a way of silencing the loneliness and lack still present in this generation.