Como poderia a Gerontologia, um campo multidisciplinar do saber, estar presente na Tabela das Áreas do Conhecimento do CNPq?

Abstract

We discuss the possibility of including Gerontology in the CNPq Areas of Knowledge Table, in a scenario where this Table is being questioned by the scientific community, particularly with regard to the inclusion of multidisciplinary areas. Based on Foucault, we view the Tree of Knowledge as taxonomy, a continuum in which all areas are placed side by side, closer together or further apart, depending on their similarities and differences. This finite linear approach establishes that a certain Area of knowledge may be placed only at a point along the line corresponding to a Greater Area. Inherently multidisciplinary, gerontology has not been placed in this institutionalized taxonomy, due either to problems related to concepts, interests and political projects in its establishment as a field of knowledge, or because this taxonomy would be not be compatible with its multidisciplinary nature. We conclude that it is possible to draw up a new Fields of Knowledge and Expertise Table, addressing studies of aging - as well as all and any Fields of Knowledge and Expertise - in their full multidisciplinarity, together with their transformations over time.