Research presents ways against the social marginalization of Italians and foreigners

Maria Giovanna Guedes Farias, Professora doutora do Departamento de Ciências da Informação e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Informação, Centro de Humanidades, Universidade Federal do Ceará Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

Professor of the Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) has built a model of social integration during doctoral research conducted in Italy, according to an article entitled “Information as a promoter of autonomy and social integration” published in the Journal Transinformação, Volume 28, Number 3, 2016. The results demonstrate that, in order to solve problems of social marginalization, it is necessary to provide concrete, real and legitimate forms of information appropriation, autonomy and cultural and social empowerment. For this, it is necessary to promote a permanent reading of the conditions of the context, a constant monitoring of processes, an assiduous presence in the fragility points, undertaking actions of information for and with the researched subjects.

The methodological course is composed by the qualitative approach, with participant research as a method. The data were collected through interviews with 23 people, Italians and foreigners residing in the surveyed community, called Rione Sanità, located in Naples. We interviewed the leader of social work, volunteers and people attended by social actions. The data were treated by the technique of content analysis with establishment of categories.

The experience lived in the community and the analyzed data provided elements for the creation of a possible model of social integration, whose objective was to show how the process of social integration in Sanità occurs. The model is composed of the following variables: social context/social protagonism; culture/acculturation; doposcuola/competencies; other; mediation; information; knowledge; communication and intelligence, as well as the form of convergence with these variables.

Social marginalization is even more aggravating for foreign residents who also suffer from xenophobia. Therefore, the work of social integration aims to encourage, in the residents, a protagonism based on the development of cognitive skills, in the empowerment of necessary information, in the encouragement of self-worth, self-esteem and autonomy, with education as a base.

It is noteworthy that interviews with volunteer teachers of the language courses in Sanità show that they seek to understand and value the culture of the foreigner, not trying to impose the Italian. There is an attempt to mediate relations between Italians and foreigners, showing that, in order to emerge from the state of marginalization, everyone must actively participate in the public space, in the process of social emancipation and in the charging of public power for the construction of a dignified life.

This research was developed in the context of a PhD in Information Science. This experience was valid both from the theoretical point of view (contact with Italian authors) and methodological (production of the model), subsidizing and improving the actions that were later implemented in a community in the city of João Pessoa.

The research was funded by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoa de Nível Superior (CAPES/MEC).

References

FARIAS, M. G. G. A informação como potencializadora da autonomia e da integração social. Transinformação [online]. 2016, vol.28, n.3, pp.323-336, ISSN 2318-0889 [viewed 21 March 2017]. DOI: 10.1590/2318-08892016000300007. Available from: http://ref.scielo.org/4nq57q

External Link

Transinformação – TINF: www.scielo.br/tinf