Estima de lugar e território: construção de mapas afetivos de moradores do Timbó em Maracanaú-CE

Abstract

The present study aims to collect and to read data about the affective dynamics of the residents of Timbó, a territory of Maracanaú-CE. The study focus on the discussion about a new strategy of territorialization of the Social Assistance Policy in the municipality. This new strategy must to overcome the physical and structural aspects of the environment present in the official data about the city and to integrate symbolic aspects of the residents' relationship with their place of residence. To this end, it was based on the premise that environments are more than a physical and objective structure apprehensible by cognition, being also composed by symbolic aspects – the feelings, emotions and representations of the places. For the theoretical construction substantiates the study, the categories “Territory”, “Affectiveness”, “Affective Maps” and “Esteem for the Place” were listed, which are characterized by authors from Environmental Psychology, Social Psychology from a Socio-Historical Approach and by the legal aspects of the Social Assistance Policy in Brazil. As for methodology, the study has a qualitative nature. As data collection strategy, the Affective Map Generator Instrument was applied to 104 subjects. The results showed an average Esteem for the Place Index of -24.9, which demonstrates the prevalence of a depotentialising Esteem for the Place among the subjects. In addition, the results show that the Affective Image of Contrasts predominates among the residents, highlighting the Potentiating Contrast. From the results found, the study allows the visualization of vulnerabilities, risks and the potential for overcoming them on the territory, promoting an increase of the professional practices of workers of the Social Assistance Policy.