Occupation as a subjectivizing process: experiences of rural women linked to social organizations

Abstract

The research aimed to understand the contribution of occupation to the subjective process of five rural women involved in social organizations in the Caldas and Boyacá departments in Colombia. It is based on the theoretical foundation of the Occupation and Human Fulfillment research group in its book Ocupación: sentido, realización y libertad; diálogos en torno al sujeto, la sociedad y el medio ambiente (Occupation: meaning, fulfillment and freedom; dialogues around the subject, society and the environment). A qualitative methodological design was used in a virtual environment, with participatory interaction, dialogue and linkage strategies. The results are organized in two categories: being a woman and daily doing. Six premises are proposed to contribute to the understanding of occupation as a subjectivizing process of the participating women, as follows: significant doings reconfigure what one is and wishes to be. Through doing, the subject transforms and transcends their purpose of freedom; the subject has the capacity to decide their occupations; occupation is a way of semiotizing cultural ways of being; a person is constructed in their interaction with the environment through their occupational acting.