Representaciones sociales sobre la organización social del cuidado de personas con discapacidad

The article arises from the research project entitled “Social organization of care for people with disabilities in a situation of dependency in the Municipality of San Pedro de Los Milagros”, carried out between August 2023 and July 2024 at the Universidad Católica del Norte. The aim was to understand the configuration of the social organization of care in the families of people with disabilities in a situation of dependency, defining the social organization of care as the interrelationship between the State, family, community and market in the provision, production and distribution of care services. Qualitative research was carried out under an ethnographic model. The findings are presented, focused on a specific research objective: understanding the social representations of care present in the care actors of people with disabilities in a situation of dependency. Social representations are defined as those shared, instituted and instituting structures of thought of social reality, by the agents in a specific social field (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1995). The social representations found are associated with three emerging ideas: the link between care and the construction of specific knowledge, experiences of loneliness and uncertainty, and self-care as a strategic resource.