Work, resistance and stress. About the methodology

Abstract

Human history is not isolated from the social context that surrounds those living at a particular time. What happens to those individuals is only possible to understand and explain by the concrete historical circumstance in which they operate. They develop meaning from their historical situation, making sense of events as a function of subjectivity that stems as much from their own experience in diverse social spaces as well as culture. Both elements combine to give rise to an identity subject to historical transformation. As a result, individuals design and redesign the significance of events that occur over their lifetimes. Institutions also play a role ensuring that each subject becomes functional within the system, to obtain self-control and discipline. To understand the significance of what it means to be a human being socially shaped over a lifetime is important as it provides the ability to consider how and why individuals are affected by historical processes. Production processes affect health status and life as they result in prolonged stress situations that lead to chronic diseases. The words of "Magaly", a garment worker, demonstrate how passing through diverse social spaces determines perception and argues for the need of achieving a methodology that understands this subjectivity, finding connections between the social and individual responses to suffering.