Construcción de Significados Sobre Convivencia que Realizan los Sujetos al Interior de una Familia en el Barrio "Casaloma" (USME)

Abstract

The research project “Construction of Meanings About Coexistence Developed by Individuals Within a Family” was approached from a social constructionist perspective, taking into account the cultural context of the participants, their actions, knowledge, customs, beliefs, and forms of interaction. These aspects served as the core elements in the construction of meanings. For the development of this study, we employed qualitative research with an ethnographic approach, as our aim was to understand the meanings and coexistence practices of a family living in the Casaloma neighborhood, located in the locality of Usme, Bogotá. To achieve this, we used instruments such as field journals, semi-structured interviews, narratives from the participants, role-playing, life stories, and parallel stories, which enabled us to answer the following research questions: How does a family construct meanings about coexistence based on the relationships established among its members? How do its members organize themselves to negotiate differences? Our interpretations were based on disciplinary frameworks provided by authors such as Gergen and Bruner. The findings of this research revealed the types of relationships built among the family members. It became evident that the meanings of coexistence constructed by the family are oriented toward an ideal of peace that is perceived as being imposed by individuals external to the family, rather than being a cultural construction arising from individual, family, and social practices that reflect their own cultural context. Paradoxically, it was the relationship itself that enabled the re-signification of their coexistence practices. However, this relationship was found to be limited almost exclusively to the family members, rather than to interactions with the external culture — even though such external culture may serve as an additional resource for the family to remain united.