A trajetória histórica da institucionalização da assistência social da Marinha do Brasil

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the historical trajectory of the institutionalization of social assistance in the Brazilian Navy. The research conducted was aimed at understanding the cognitive elements that presided over the emergence and evolution of a sector of provision of welfare services whose purpose is to serve a specific group: Navy personnel. In this direction, the literature produced in Brazil on social assistance in the Brazilian Armed Forces was reviewed, the actors involved in the process of institutionalization of social assistance in the Navy were identified, the justifications that guided the process of institutionalization of social assistance in the Navy were identified, the trajectory of the institutional and organizational structure of social assistance in the Navy was described, and the inflections that occurred in the institutional and organizational structure of social assistance in the Navy were identified over time. The set of theoretical and methodological precepts that guided the research are located in the field of the cognitive approach to the analysis of public policies and the historiographical method. Thus, emphasis was placed on the influence exerted by ideas, general precepts and social representations in the formation of the Navy's social assistance, seeking to capture the processes of ruptures and continuities based on traces found in historical documents. It was concluded that, although the historical trajectory of the Navy's social assistance is marked by moments in which there was an attempt to actually make changes to the proposed actions and the way in which its functioning was organized, the cognitive framework from which this field develops shows a greater tendency towards permanence, especially in relation to the justifications and expected results of the implemented interventions. The belief prevails in the Navy's social assistance that socio-educational intervention and the guarantee of access to goods and services produce a state of psychological tranquility that results in ideal conditions for the performance of professional activities, even if such result is not proven by evidence. The endogenous nature of the interventions was verified, since even those actions developed by the Abrigo do Marinheiro Association, constituted as a civil legal entity, are also directed from the same place as the actions and services effectively offered by the military institution. The association of what is done in this intervention field with the social image of women, with volunteer work and with the moral imperative of loving one's neighbor was observed.