Browsing by Author "Pegado, Elsa"
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- Coffee and cigarettes: work contexts and performance managementPublication . Raposo, Hélder António; Pegado, Elsa; Rodrigues, Carla F.; Fernandes, Ama IsabelIn a context of an increasingly global and competitive economy, emerging restructuring and organizational dynamics demand greater versatility and functional efficiency, while often establishing precarious working conditions for professionals. Problems such as the intensive pace of work, insufficient free time for extra-work activities, long working hours and/or rotating shift systems, along with the need to adapt to new practices and routines, are just some of the indicators which reflect the high pressure put on professional performance. While this pressure cross-cuts different working areas, the extent of its impact tends to be most relevant within professional groups whose nature of work links them to more demanding and higher responsive levels of performance. This presentation draws on an ongoing sociological study on ‘performance consumptions’ at work, i.e., the use of medicines, dietary supplements, and other products to improve physical, intellectual, and social performance in the workplace. Based on five Focus Group Discussions with a total of 22 participants from two main professional groups, we explore 1) the work context and working conditions of these professionals and the pressures they create for certain forms and levels of performance and 2) how these groups manage (pharmacologically or not) such professional imperatives. Focusing on the social context that structures the daily work of these individuals, we analyze the social expression of such performance consumptions, specifically those that are mobilized to deal with issues such as sleep problems, fatigue, to improve concentration, or to deal with the negative implications of stress. While the widespread use of coffee and cigarettes appears as a legitimate practice in the everyday working routines, due to both their socializing markers and their perceived improvement in performance management, specific products (energy drinks and medicines) were mentioned most when managing more extreme situations arising from work-related activities.
- Coffee in the workplace: a social break or a performance enhancer?Publication . Rodrigues, Carla F.; Raposo, Hélder António; Pegado, Elsa; Fernandes, Ana I.Coffee is a socially rooted drink with pharmacological properties. It is embedded in different everyday rituals, including ‘coffee breaks’ during working hours. This paper analyzes the role of coffee in the workplace. Focusing on three professional areas associated with high pressure and responsive demands, we explore the social expression of coffee use at work, and how it is mobilized as a tool for managing sleepiness, fatigue, stress, and concentration problems, amongst other work-related issues.
- Medicamentos e pluralismo terapêutico: reflexões metodológicasPublication . Raposo, Hélder António; Lopes, Noémia; Pegado, Elsa; Clamote, TelmoNo âmbito de um projecto de investigação em curso sobre “medicamentos e pluralismo terapêutico”, em que se procura explorar analiticamente o espectro de formas de pluralismo terapêutico actualmente emergentes, bem como as modalidades de activismo leigo e de reflexividade em que esse mesmo pluralismo assenta, pretende-se com esta comunicação dar conta de algumas reflexões metodológicas decorrentes das várias fases do processo de recolha de informação. Esse processo foi levado a cabo em diferentes contextos de inquirição (Centros de Saúde, Lojas de Produtos Naturais e Clínicas de Medicinas Alternativas) e desdobra-se em 2 fases principais. Na primeira fase essa recolha foi feita através de um inquérito por questionário com o propósito de traçar um retrato sociográfico de pluralismo terapêutico, e na segunda fase essa recolha será feita através de entrevistas em profundidade a alguns dos anteriores inquiridos, com o objectivo de captar indirectamente as “processualidades”, as “lógicas cognitivas” e o tipo de saberes mobilizados em matéria de opções terapêuticas.
- Medication use for the management of professional performance: between invisibility and social normalisationPublication . Lopes, Noémia; Tavares, David; Pegado, Elsa; Raposo, Hélder António; Rodrigues, CarlaThis article aims to explore pharmaceuticalisation processes in professional work contexts. The approach focuses on identifying patterns of medicine and dietary supplement use for managing work performance, and on discussing the relationship between these consumption practices and work-related pressure factors. This analysis adapts the notions of 'normalisation' to understand the extent of cultural acceptability of these practices, and the notion of 'differentiated normalisation' to capture the tension between the trend towards normalisation of such consumption and its partial social (in)visibility within work settings. Empirical support for this analysis is based on a sociological study conducted in Portugal on professions under high performance pressures. The study involved three professional groups - nurses, journalists and police officers. A mixed methods approach was used, including focus groups, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Overall, the results show a trend towards the use of medicines and supplements for performance management, which reveals itself as a cultural response to work-related social pressures. Such consumption coexists with irregular patterns of either occasional or long-term use, as well as heterogeneous processes of 'normalisation' and 'hidden' consumption. Conclusions point to a social interconnection between the intensification of work pressures and the pharmaceuticalisation of work performance.
- Medications, youth therapeutic cultures and performance consumptions: a sociological approachPublication . Lopes, Noémia; Clamote, Telmo; Raposo, Hélder António; Pegado, Elsa; Rodrigues, CarlaThis article analyses performance consumptions among young people. The theme is explored along two main axes. The first concerns the social heterogeneity in this field, considered on two levels: the different purposes for those investments - cognitive/mental and physical performance; and the different social contexts - university and work - where performance practices and dispositions may be fostered. The second axis explores the roles of pharmacological and natural consumptions, and their interrelationship, in the dissemination of these practices. The empirical data for this analysis were drawn from an ongoing research project on performance consumptions among young people (aged 18-29 years) in Portugal, including both university students and young workers without university education. The results correspond to the stage of extensive research, for which a questionnaire was organised at a national level, using non-proportional quota sampling. On the one hand, they show that (a) there is a hierarchy of acceptance of consumptions according to their purposes, with cognitive/mental performance showing higher acceptance and (b) both pharmaceuticals and natural products are consumed for every type of performance investment. On the other, the comparison between students and workers introduces a certain heterogeneity in this general backdrop, both in terms of the purposes for their consumptions and their opting for natural or pharmacological resources. These threads of heterogeneity will prompt a discussion of the dynamics of pharmaceuticalisation within the field of performance, in particular how therapeutic cultures may be changing in terms of the way individuals relate to medications, expanding their uses in social life.
- O natural e o farmacológico: padrões de consumo terapêutico na população portuguesaPublication . Lopes, Noémia; Clamote, Telmo; Raposo, Hélder António; Pegado, Elsa; Rodrigues, CarlaNeste artigo identificam-se os padrões de consumo terapêutico na população portuguesa, visando dar conta de um novo padrão emergente nas sociedades modernas, aqui designado de Pluralismo Terapêutico, noção com a qual se categoriza o uso conjugado ou alternado de recursos farmacológicos e naturais nas trajetórias terapêuticas dos indivíduos. O respetivo suporte empírico decorre de uma investigação, já concluída, que teve por base uma amostra nacional representativa. Os resultados mostram uma dualização dos consumos terapêuticos que é constituída por um padrão dominante de Farmacologismo – i.e., uso exclusivo de fármacos – coexistente com uma tendência crescente de pluralismo terapêutico. O efeito das fontes de informação terapêutica e dos seus usos leigos, bem como das perceções sociais de risco sobre o natural e o farmacológico, constitui neste estudo uma referência analítica central para a interpretação dos padrões encontrados. - ABSTRACT: In this article we identify patterns of therapeutic consumption, with the purpose of assessing an emerging pattern in modern societies, here designated as Therapeutic Pluralism, referring to the conjugated or alternated use of pharmacological and natural resources in the therapeutic trajectories of individuals. The empirical basis for this analysis stems from a concluded research on the topic, and is focused on a questionnaire administered to a representative sample of the Portuguese population. The results show a duality in therapeutic consumptions, expressed in the coexistence of a dominant pattern of Pharmacologism – that is, the exclusive therapeutic consumption of pharmaceuticals – and a growing trend towards therapeutic pluralism. The effects of information sources on health and its lay uses, as well as of the social perceptions of risk concerning the natural and the pharmacological, constitute key analytical references for this study’s interpretation of the identified patterns.
- The uses of coffee in highly demanding work contexts: managing rhythms, sleep, and performancePublication . Pegado, Elsa; Rodrigues, Carla; Raposo, Hélder António; Fernandes, Ana I.This paper presents a sociological approach to coffee consumption as a performance management strategy in work contexts, particularly in professions with intense work rhythms and highly responsive demands. Focusing on the daily work of three professional groups (nurses, police officers, and journalists), we analyze the social expression of coffee and how it is mobilized to deal with sleep problems, fatigue, concentration, or stress. For this purpose, three intertwined dimensions are explored: (1) the nature of these professionals’ work and the pressures for certain forms and levels of performance; (2) sleep problems as both a result of those work characteristics and a constraint on performance; and (3) the role of coffee in managing professional imperatives. The use of coffee appears as a legitimate practice in everyday working routines, due to its socializing markers, whereas additional benefits are attributed to the pharmacological properties of caffeine, given the perceived improvement in performance. The empirical data was derived from a study carried out in Portugal on the use of medicines and food supplements for performance management, following a mixed methods approach. In particular, data from a questionnaire survey in a sample of 539 workers and information collected through seven focus groups with a total of 33 participants were used.
- Transformations in journalists' work and therapeutic management of professional pressurePublication . Tavares, David; Pegado, Elsa; Raposo, Hélder AntónioIn this article, we approach an unexplored line of analysis and research about the impact of transformations in journalists’ work on professional pressure and performance-consumption, what we refer to as the process of pharmaceuticalisation of work contexts. We discuss how changes at work lead to increased pressure on journalists and how pressure generates practices and dispositions for using different types of natural and pharmaceutical resources for managing work performance. Our analysis is based on mixed-methods research carried out in Portugal combining integrated qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results begin by highlighting the impact of work transformations on professional pressure both in terms of working time (workload, pace, and working hours) and work demands resulting from professional practices and public scrutiny. The professional pressure that the transformations in journalism have been accentuating has faced journalists with the need to manage new or heavier work demands, which, in turn, can encourage the use of medicines and other therapeutic products to manage personal and professional performance.