Social Reproduction as a methodological perspective for contextualized analysis of living and health conditions

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the use of Social Reproduction, proposed by Juan Samaja, in the analysis of living and health conditions in a context of an sustanaible development reserve in the Brazilian Amazon. This study uses a comprehensive approach to Social Reproduction processes that comprise the network of hierarchically organized structures using the analysis of social interactions of narrated and observable events, applied to the data matrix. The Ecological Reproduction of life in the riverside forest is negatively expressed in bio-communal life, as the strategic actions provided by the Political, Economic and Cultural Reproductions, that is, the environmental policy actions, do not value the local way of life. The deficient access to social goods and services, including health care, from the Political and Techno-Economic Reproductions, has an impact on the material basis of the Bio-Communal Reproduction, whose outcome is high frequency of disease complaints and workplace accidents, such as infectious gastroenteritis, malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, and poisoning by venomous animals. Ensuring access to social goods and services, in particular health care, is essential for improving resilience to the forest adversities. In conclusion, the social reproduction data matrix helped understand the processes of Social Reproduction that are part of the hierarchically organized structures, whose interactions shaped the living and health conditions of the riverside population analyzed in this study.