Construcción social de la vejez en Uruguay a partir de documentos de políticas públicas

Abstract

Public policies can be addressed as social practices that contribute to the construction of aging considered as a social reality. This article presents the results of a qualitative study that had the objective to identify and characterize, in public policy documents, the meanings about aging and older persons, references to subjects and/or actors/actresses, and the capacity of action than documents conferred to these actors. An analysis of categorical thematic content of the texts of the law that created the policies governing institution in aging and old age in Uruguay and its first action plan (2013 2012) was performed. Two orientations of the policies that are part of a process of change were identified: one focused on biomedical and productivists approaches and another incorporating a life course and gender perspective, as well as a greater capacity for action of the older persons. However, these perspectives do not appear in a pure form, but denoting tensions, transitional characteristics, and suggesting that aspects of them can be used in a rhetorical sense within the framework of diverse political orientations.