Lutas de representações em processos de longa duração: proposta cartográfica para investigações sócio-históricas, a partir da articulação das ideias de Norbert Elias e Roger Chartier, verificada em um estudo sobre as representações da docência nos periódicos de Uberlândia/MG (1933-2023)

Abstract

This thesis proposes a methodological approach for analyzing struggles over representations in long‑term historical periods, drawing on Norbert Elias’s Figurational Sociology (1994, 1999) and Roger Chartier’s concept of Representation (1990, 1991). The proposal is structured in two analytical movements: the first aims at identifying and categorizing representations by observing “classifications,” “practices,” and “institutionalized forms,” in accordance with Chartier’s (1991) framework; the second movement seeks the sociogenesis of the predominant representations in order to construct an analysis of the Social Figuration over a long‑term period (ELIAS, 1999). To demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the proposed methodology, the dissertation presents an analysis of representations of teaching in the periodicals of Uberlândia/MG. The pilot study examines representations of teaching in newspapers that circulated—and continue to circulate—in the municipality of Uberlândia/MG over ten decades, between 1933 and 2023, and seeks to show how such constructs are altered and permeated over time by changes in the social figuration that produces them. The sample was based on Teachers’ Day, first celebrated on October 15, 1933 (VICENTINI, LUGLI, 2009), and unfolded decade by decade until 2023, totaling ten decades. Collections from the Uberlândia Public Archive (physical), the Center for Documentation and Research in History / UFU (physical), the Minas Gerais Public Archive (digital), and the National Library’s Hemeroteca (digital) were consulted. In total, 218 editions of nine different periodicals were analyzed, in which marks of representations of teaching as devalued, civic, sacerdotal, and litigious were identified. The results allow us to demonstrate that the periodicals of Uberlândia/MG served as a stage for the struggle over representations waged between teaching professionals and different social groups. Initially, they reinforced representations stemming from social expectations about teachers—the civic and sacerdotal forms of teaching—and, in a later moment, they opened space for the representations that the professionals themselves sought to construct—the devalued and litigious forms of teaching. The changes experienced over the analyzed period, both in the social figuration and in the dynamics of journalistic practice, reverberated through the representations of teaching that newspapers circulated in the municipality of Uberlândia/MG.