A práxis da Conservação do patrimônio material nos contextos brasileiro e espanhol sob a ótica das Representações Sociais.

Abstract

The conservation of movable cultural property is an important field of heritage protection, which aims to guarantee future generations the preservation of the values and objects that underlie the identity of social groups. Like any specialized area, it is a field influenced by different theoretical orientations and benchmarks. The objective of this dissertation went far beyond analyzing the influence of these schools and their specific weight. The central focus was to examine the conceptions underlying the praxis of conservators-restorers in two distinct contexts: Spain and Brazil. The task brought out the valuations of these professionals concerning the definition of Good Conservation as well as that of its opposite, Inadequate Conservation. The comparison of the praxis of conservators-restorers in both Spanish and Brazilian contexts was made possible thanks to an international exchange (doctoral stay) scholarship granted by CAPES. The study included a total of 51 semi-structured interviews, 29 of them in Brazil and 22 in Spain. The analysis of the empirical material revealed a dense source of information and data that were organized and analyzed with the NVivo software. There are more converging aspects than diverging ones between the data collected on each side of the Atlantic. Nevertheless, some aspects stand out. In both countries, Good Conservation is guided by compliance with the Code of Ethics, respect for cultural property and its history, and compliance with the classical criteria in the area, especially the principle of least intervention. That represents 44% of the accounts in Brazil and 60% in Spain. The perceptions regarding the opposite concept of Inadequate Conservation were even more expressive: 64% of Brazilian interviewees defined it as discrediting ethics, disrespect for the cultural property and its history, and non-compliance with the classical criteria. Among the Spanish interviewees, this idea reached the expressive mark of 71%. On the other hand, both countries suffer from unqualified practice, the low social value of the profession, and great difficulty in organizing the category, which still lacks professional regulation. As for the theoretical models, the so-called 'critical restoration' seems to prevail in both countries. However, critical reflection, which is the basis of contemporary thought, was surprisingly not an idea manifested among the Spanish interviewees. In summary, the great merit of this dissertation is based on three main elements. Firstly, it sheds light on the objectivities and subjectivities that are hidden in the daily lives of workers in this profession. Secondly, it compares two distinct contexts, that of Brazil and that of Spain. Thirdly, it makes use of a unique heuristic resource that is well suited to the nature of the subject matter, namely, the theory of social representations, an effective tool that has been widely used by the various disciplines that make up the fields of Applied Social Sciences and the Human Sciences.