La producción social del compromiso en tiempos difíciles: socorristas, médicos de urgencias y forenses

The social production of commitment in hard times: first responders, emergency physicians, and forensic doctors in Colombia

This article proposes a sociology of commitment in hard times, based on the experience lived during the 1980s and 1990s by a group of professionals whose work was carried out on the front line of attention to the bodily effects of armed violence —relief, emergency hospital care, and forensic medical expertise— in the urban centres with the highest demographic and institutional concentration in Colombia —Bogota, Medellin, and Cali—. In this context, how was the link with their respective jobs formed and what specific meanings did they attribute to the activity itself? To what extent does the formation of a commitment to determined common causes help to explain the maintenance and transformation of immediate care work? This article also hopes to shed new light on the social, political, and health situation that the country went through at that time, characterized not only by a crisis of armed violence but also of legitimacy and political-institutional precariousness: if the focus has mostly been on the critical horizon of collapse and chaos, empirical studies explaining the processes of social and institutional rebuilding in these difficult times are still lacking. A qualitative and inductive perspective is therefore adopted here. An original oral corpus is examined according to the processes of codification, saturation, categorization and progressive problematization, and a triangulation of the resulting data with a diverse set of written sources is carried out. The particularity of the oral corpus has been captured through the tools of interactionist and pragmatic perspective in sociology and lies in its testimonial value and in the fact that it is structured around three links in the care chain. Thus, it has shown the progressive emergence of some modalities of firm commitment in the face of the ravages of armed violence, aimed at underpinning professional values, adapting, and transforming care services and feeding the public debate, and it has been concluded that these have laid the foundations of a common institutional horizon.

This article proposes a sociology of commitment in hard times, based on the experience lived during the 1980s and 1990s by a group of professionals whose work was carried out on the front line of attention to the bodily effects of armed violence – relief, emergency hospital care and forensic medical expertise – in the urban centres with the highest demographic and institutional concentration in Colombia – Bogota, Medellin, and Cali. In this context, how did these individuals adapt to their respective jobs? To what extent does the formation of a commitment to certain common causes help to explain the maintenance and transformation of immediate care work? This article also hopes to shed new light on the social, political and health situation that the country went through at that time, characterized not only by a crisis of armed violence but also of legitimacy and political-institutional precariousness: if the focus has mostly been on the critical horizon of collapse and chaos, empirical studies explaining the processes of social and institutional recomposition in these difficult times are still lacking. A qualitative and inductive perspective is therefore adopted here. An original oral corpus is examined according to the processes of codification, saturation, categorization and progressive problematization, and a triangulation of the resulting data with a diverse set of written sources is carried out. The richness of the oral corpus lies mainly in its content and testimonial value. These particularities have been captured through the tools of a certain interactionist and pragmatic sociology. Thus, the complexity and variations over time of the adaptation of individuals to their respective jobs of immediate attention have been revealed. Above all, it has been shown that the emergence of certain modalities of firm commitment in the face of the ravages of armed violence, aimed at underpinning professional values, adapting, and transforming care services and nurturing public debate, has laid the foundations of a common institutional horizon.

Neste artigo propõe-se uma sociologia de compromisso em tempos difíceis, com base na experiência vivida durante as décadas 1980 e 1990 por um grupo de profissionais cujo trabalho foi realizado na linha da frente da atenção aos efeitos corporais da violência armada —ajuda de emergência, atendimento hospitalar de emergência e perícia médica forense— nos centros urbanos de maior concentração demográfica e institucional na Colômbia —Bogotá, Medellín e Cali—. Nesse contexto, como se formou o vínculo com seus respectivos empregos e que significados específicos eles atribuíram à atividade em si? Até que ponto a formação de um compromisso com determinadas causas comuns ajuda a explicar a manutenção e a transformação do trabalho de atendimento imediato? Neste artigo também espera-se lançar uma nova luz sobre a situação social, política e de saúde do país naquela época, caracterizada não apenas por uma crise de violência armada, mas também de legitimidade e precariedade político-institucional: se o olhar esteve por muito tempo orientado para o horizonte crítico do colapso e do caos, ainda faltam estudos empíricos que expliquem os processos de recomposição social e institucional nesses tempos difíceis. Adota-se aqui uma perspectiva qualitativa e indutiva: um corpus oral inédito é examinado de acordo com os processos de codificação, saturação, categorização e problematização progressiva, e é realizada uma triangulação dos dados resultantes com um conjunto diversificado de fontes escritas. A particularidade do corpus oral foi capturada por meio das ferramentas da sociologia interacionista e pragmática e reside em seu valor de testemunho e no fato de ter sido estruturado em torno de três elos na cadeia de cuidados. Dessa forma, foi demonstrado o surgimento progressivo de certas formas de compromisso firme diante da devastação da violência armada, com o objetivo de sustentar os valores profissionais, adaptar e transformar os serviços de atendimento e alimentar o debate público, e concluiu-se que essas formas lançaram as bases para um horizonte institucional comum.