A gerontologia como campo do conhecimento científico: conceito, interesses e projeto político

Résumé 0

"The article discusses gerontology’s intentionto become the science of aging in Brazil.We considered Stengers’s idea that the developmentof a concept and the emergence of interestsin different sectors of society concerned with a politicalproject are the foundations for the establishmentof a scientific field.We have identifiedimportant conceptual limitations involving oldage and ageing delimitations, as well as otherproblems concerning hierarchies between innerspheres in gerontology and in other knowledgefields. Despite the important interests aroused byold age, gerontology seems to be on a very limitedlevel as scientific park and as critical mass for theproduction of advanced research. It seems thatpresent elaboration of a political process forgerontology lays on the attempt to incorporateepistemological discourse within a perspectivewhich make us think of the need of deepeningtheoretical approach about the concept it intendsto grasp, at the risk of failing in the organizationof an important group of Brazilian researchers insertedin the international scene of scientific productionon ageing individuals."