Experiences and meanings from collective occupations: a look at the well-being/psychosocial discomfort expressed by conducted public transportation drivers

Experiências e significações de ocupações coletivas: um olhar para o bem-estar psicossocial/desconforto expresso por condutores de transporte público

Abstract

The article describes experiences from collective occupations in the territory and the meaning given to the psychosocial well-being/discomfort by drivers of the public transport tendered in the province of Concepción, Chile. In this research, the methodology was qualitative in nature, with a phenomenological approach. The information was collected through the application of seventeen semi-structured interviews with bus line drivers, which were later transcribed. The texts of these transcripts were the material for the categorical analysis, which allowed defining themes, categories, encodings, and analysis subcategories. Among the most relevant results, the social construction of the figure that is currently perceived as the driver of the public transport tendered in Concepción stands out, understood as a collective occupation in movement and which is dependent on the unique characteristics of the territory. The Conclusions in this study allow us to observe that drivers work long hours in exchange for the economic benefits that work grants them, in some cases showing occupational alienation. Different territories are identified; the terminal as a meeting space where “we are all friends”, a relationship that changes when we go out onto the street, a space that drivers describe as the “jungle”. Thus, the street is identified as a field of struggle, competition, and permanent conflict. It is possible to show that the union organization of workers contributes to the provision of spaces in the terminal territory, allowing collective occupation.

Keywords:
Community Participation; Work; Culture

Resumo

O artigo exposto descreve as experiências das ocupações coletivas no território e o significado atribuído ao bem-estar/desconforto psicossocial dos motoristas de transporte público ofertados na província de Concepción, Chile. Nesta pesquisa, a metodologia utilizada foi qualitativa, com abordagem fenomenológica. As informações. Foram coletadas por meio da aplicação de dezessete entrevistas semiestruturadas com motoristas de linhas de ônibus, que foram posteriormente transcritas. Os textos destas transcrições foram o material para a análise categórica, o que permitiu definir temas, categorias, codificações e subcategorias de análise. Entre os resultados mais relevantes, destaca-se a construção social da figura que atualmente é percebida como propulsora do sistema de transporte público em Concepción, Chile, entendida como ocupação coletiva em movimento e dependente das características únicas do território. As conclusões deste estudo permitem observar que os motoristas trabalham longas horas em troca dos benefícios econômicos que o trabalho lhes concede, em alguns casos apresentando alienação ocupacional. Diferentes territórios foram identificados; sendo o terminal de ônibus um espaço de encontro onde “somos todos amigos”, sendo que a relação muda quando saímos para a rua, um espaço que os motoristas descrevem como “selva”. Assim, a rua é identificada como um campo de luta, competição e conflito permanente. É possível evidenciar que a organização sindical dos trabalhadores contribui para a disponibilização de espaços no território do terminal, permitindo a ocupação coletiva.

Palavras-chave:
Participação da Comunidade; Trabalho; Cultura

Resumen

El artículo que se expone describe experiencias desde las ocupaciones colectivas en el territorio y el significado otorgado al bienestar/malestar psicosocial por conductores del transporte público licitado de la provincia de Concepción, Chile. En esta investigación, la metodología empleada fue de carácter cualitativo, con enfoque fenomenológico. La información fue recolectada mediante la aplicación de diecisiete entrevistas semiestructuradas a conductores de líneas de buses, las que posteriormente fueron transcritas. Los textos de estas transcripciones fueron el material para el análisis categorial, que permitió definir temas, categorías, codificaciones y subcategorías de análisis. Entre los resultados más relevantes se destaca la construcción social de la figura que actualmente se percibe del conductor del transporte público licitado de Concepción, entendida como ocupación colectiva en movimiento y que es dependiente de las características singulares del territorio. Las Conclusiones en este estudio, permiten observar que los conductores realizan extensas jornadas laborales a cambio de los beneficios económicos que el trabajo les otorga, dejando en evidencia en algunos casos una alienación ocupacional. Se identifican diferentes territorios; el terminal como un espacio de encuentro en donde “todos somos amigos”, relación que cambia al salir al territorio de la calle, espacio que los conductores describen como la “selva”. Así, la calle es identificada como un campo de lucha, competencia y conflicto permanente. Es posible evidenciar que la organización sindical de los trabajadores contribuye a la disposición de espacios en el territorio terminal, permitiendo la ocupación colectiva.

Palabras clave:
Participación de la Comunidad; Trabajo; Cultura

1 Introduction

This research aims to show the different psychosocial processes, embedded in the experiences of daily life in drivers of public transportation in Concepción, Chile. These social practices are rooted in the community and expressed in collective occupations because “[...] the occupation as a field, produces occupied individuals and allows the relationship between them, and in this sense, we are the occupation; then the individual and the occupation are equivalent” (Guajardo 2011, p. 18). In this way, the individual and the occupation are located in a specific space, time, and territory, in which the social practices generate well-being/discomfort in human beings.

Social practices are inherent to collective occupations and are conditioned in their material and symbolic orbits by the context, the territory, and the time in which existence is a dependency on doing and occupying the territory. This is the expression of collective occupations, defined by Elelwani & Ramugondo (2012, as cited in Caamaño et al., 2017, p. 6) as “[...] the continuum between oppression and liberation and intentionality would be the key to its construction”. Collective occupations constitute both a material and an emotional resource in human beings. Resources that promote resistance, occupation, liberation, and opposition, in the community and each sphere of human action; human action, which is conditioned by a social, political, cultural and economic context, which is part of the collective occupation of the individual and of his permanent experience of doing in the territory.

The public transport tendered in the province of Concepción is a service of use and public interest, linked to the life of the human being and the social, political, and cultural development of urban environments. Its relevant for the living and existing in the territory comes from the second half of the 19^th century because Concepción was the third most important city in the country. Its population of 66,074 inhabitants registered in the 1920 census had varied considerably thanks to the great industrial activity existing in the area, a phenomenon that could be seen in the expansion of its urban areas (Campos et al., 2014). The means of public land transport have had a historical development whose progress has been closely related to the globalization process that incorporates the political, the economic, the social, and the advancement of new technologies (Figueroa, 2005). In a particular way, in the development of the great communes of the country, the means of transport have played a preponderant role in the expansion of the city in a large part of the geography, allowing movement, the organization of social life and exploration of new territories.

In this research, it is important to understand that several subjectivities converge in the use of public transport that by sharing the territory with others, enables the construction of meanings that are part of the collective identity of the city of Concepción, understanding that the individuals are configured as such in the social interactions through discourse and culture (Agudelo Bedoya & Estrada Arango, 2013).

The traditional image of drivers represented passive and mechanized human beings in their actions and linked to the machine and the territory they pass through has perhaps been the reason why their figure is invisible a situation. This is closely linked to the concept of occupational alienation, which refers to “[...] prolonged experiences of disconnection, isolation, emptiness, lack of sense of identity, limited expression of the spirit or sense of meaninglessness such as the absence of meaning or purpose in the occupations of everyday life” (Townsend & Wilcock, 2008, as cited in Pizarro et al., 2018, p. 3). This situation leads us to reflect on the daily work of Concepción's public transport drivers, their vision of their role as a social actor, and the meaning that identifies them as a collective occupation.

Thus, it is important to understand that human occupation is a shared phenomenon and in the case of the drivers of the public transport tendered in Concepción, it is a collective occupation. This occupation is modulated by the territory, an environment that includes the street through which the collective occupation, the bus, and the terminal travel. These habitual spaces are transformed into symbolic spaces where multiple subjectivities converge in which public transport drivers interact, jointly configuring the identity of this collective occupation mediated by processes of well-being/psychosocial discomfort.

In this research, the actions to get closer to the study individuals were repeated meetings with managers and drivers of the tendered transportation of Concepción. The main objective of the research was progressively communicated to them, that is, “[...] what is the meaning that drivers give to their collective experiences and psychosocial well-being/discomfort”. Thus, after the research team explicitly expresses its interest in four bus lines to participate in the research, two of them voluntarily express their intention to be part of the research. From this, the research formalization process begins (letters to managers of the bus lines to authorize the research, ethical considerations, application of informed consent, design, and preparation of the semi-structured interview pattern).

Finally, the semi-structured interview guideline was applied to seventeen drivers of two bus lines of the public tendered transportation in Concepción. The analysis of the information allowed to rescue experiences and meanings in the territory from the daily doing and feeling with others, and to understand the dynamism manifested in the collective occupation when traveling through the territory, expressing the well-being or psychosocial discomfort.

2 Development

2.1 Human occupation: individual action and collective practice

Understanding human occupation from a collective perspective in Occupational Therapy (OT) is a challenge because the word is part of the common language with meanings that the profession cannot control (Crepeau et al., 2011). The founders of Occupational Therapy used the word occupation to describe a way of using time correctly that included work and recreational and similar activities (cited in Crepeau et al., 2011). Subsequently, the paradigm of occupation arises, which is conceived as an individual and subjective phenomenon, highlighting the development of intervention models such as the disclosed occupation model (Morrison et al., 2011). This occupation is expressed in a time-space in which it coexists to do, as Barros (2015) points out, space and time in which the relationships that men establish with each other and with nature based on their needs, configuring what is called concrete conditions of existence.

In the social space, occupation and existence are dynamic and from the socio-historical circumstances in which individuals interact, dialogue, and express their opinions about their activities in the community. Palacios (2015) states that, in the mid-1980s, the occupation was assumed as an intermediary between the person and the context. In this way, from both perspectives, occupation is seen as an individual manifestation and adaptation of the individual to the territory. Thus, “[...] relationships, and who we are as human beings, are constantly being shaped by what we are capable or incapable of doing within groups, communities, and society” (Ramugondo & Kronenberg, 2015, p. 10).

Human occupation expressed in collective relationships constitutes the individual of his material and symbolic expressions in his doing in the community with others. Palacios (2015) mentions that, from a social perspective, it is necessary to make the community and its occupations visible as individuals of Occupational Therapy. Then, the concept of Collective Occupation emerged in 2012 by Elelwani Ramugondo and Frank Kronerberg, who refers to the meanings that are given to the occupation. These meanings do not occur in individual doing, but in the so-called collective occupation, what is associated with the South African conception Ubuntu, reported by Marle & Cornell (2005, as cited in Ramugondo & Kronenberg, 2015, p. 10) “[...] it is a deep meaning, and whatever else it is, implies an interactive ethic or an ontic orientation in which who and how we can be as human beings are always being formed in our interaction with others”.

In the last decades from Latin America, the concept of occupation has been analyzed from the social paradigm of the OT, which is in tune with a counter-hegemonic rupture from a critical perspective (Palacios, 2015). This social occupational therapy would have emerged from the reflective analysis of the different intervention practices, which would allow observing the gestation of an (apparently) new direction of the objectives and purposes of the profession, directing special concern for issues of a social nature (Kronenberg et al., 2006).

2.2 Territory and collective occupations in motion

From 2002 to the Eighth Region of Chile, the tender for public passenger transportation services began. This is done through the legal mechanism established in Exempt Resolution 2246, of Law Decree 279, which establishes the number of machines that will carry out the routes in seven inter-communes of the province of Concepción. They are Concepción, Penco, Talcahuano, Chiguayante, San Pedro de la Paz, Hualqui, and Hualpén. This is how we observe that 1,890 machines make 72 trips. However, the number of drivers that operate is not known exactly, as a consequence of the contractual system, which allows each employer to hire drivers directly. In this way, some lines work by shift system, others only contemplate one shift per machine, and holidays when drivers are replaced. The Provincial Trade Association of Taxi Buses of Concepción estimates that there are 2,800 drivers in the province.

The drivers experience their daily practices in material and symbolic spaces, social orbits where the territory is coherent with the place described from an occupational perspective, in which it addresses the space and its relationship with symbolic aspects necessary for social life and, we could say, occupations (Pizarro et al., 2018). A territory is then a place where culture is ascribed and therefore its practices occur. It is a space defined according to the distribution and needs of the population and that can be an enhancement of the reproduction of an occupation, generating a sense of belonging in the individuals providing psychosocial well-being/discomfort. Thus, it is necessary to understand the individual-territory interrelation since in this relationship a shared symbolic plot is evidenced because the territory builds uses and meanings in the individual, which is expressed in the collective occupation. As Giménez (2005) points out, the space appropriated by a social group to ensure its reproduction and the satisfaction of its vital needs, which can be material or symbolic.

The territory is a place of varied scale where actors set in motion complex processes of interaction between systems of actions and systems of objects, constituted by a geographical environment with several techniques [...] identifiable according to instances in processes of territorial organization in particular to that event and with varying degrees of insertion in power relationships (Bozzano, 2012, p. 3).

In this way, there are various interactions in the subculture of public transportation such as the relationship between individuals-objects and individuals-territory in which different power relationships are expressed that may vary according to the nature of this relationship and that give identity when working collectively. As stated by Palacios (2017), the street is transformed into a meeting place, built by popular collective interactions. For the author, the territory is a specific geographical place where collective occupation occurs. In this research, in addition to that indicated by Palacios, the territory constituted by various spaces is understood, which in their singularities configure the collective occupation. On the one hand, the bus terminal and the different spaces that exist in it, and the bus and the streets or places they travel daily as part of their journey.

The territory has a series of complex factors that facilitate and limit interactions and generate intersubjectivity between people (Mascareño & Busher, 2011, as cited in Palacios, 2017). We consider both the terminal and the bus as spaces that favor the construction of meanings in drivers, which is why the vehicle is of great importance to them and is configured as their most intimate workspace, in which different interactions take place between operators and passengers (Aguilar, 2000).

By understanding that there is a multiterritoriality in this collective occupation, the importance of the street as a mutable territory is revealed. The driver, together with the bus, travels through different geographical spaces in which the local culture and context certainly vary, influencing the way of feeling the territory and interacting with the passengers. Thus,

It is feasible to consider public passenger transportation units as built forms [...] loaded with abundant and complex signs that constitute a code where each element: color, materials, size, use, their stories, their faults, contain a great number of meanings (Aguilar, 2000, p. 93).

This is why when considering the bus as an object it is related to the driver and that is configured as part of this information transfer. Following the above, Latour (2003) shows the role that objects have in the constitution of society. As Norbert Elias (1990) had previously mentioned, human beings are in contact with the world, and in this interdependence between Humans and the world determines “[...] how objects act on individuals, individuals on objects, non-human natural phenomena on people, and people on non-human nature” (as cited in Pozas, 2015, p. 3).

In this way, the bus can be understood as an object that expresses the identity of the driver, that is, as a moving social platform to establish social relationships with passengers and the territory. Thus, we understand that the bus allows social practices, which is why a network of symbolisms shared by public transportation drivers is generated, who daily interact with it, assembling and from this inseparable link they generate actions and meanings that contribute to the collective occupation.

2.3 Meanings associated with psychosocial well-being/discomfort

In this research, we understand psychosocial well-being/discomfort as the union between the psychological and social elements that contribute to give shape and meaning to the identity of the individual. Thus, the focus of an individual´s well-being has focused on the evaluations of their circumstances and their functioning within society. It includes his own; the ability to manage the environment and one's life effectively (Zubieta et al., 2012).

Therefore, the well-being lies in characteristics that are expressed in daily actions and in the constant search to achieve control of the environment in which they live, which in turn, from the social component, is related to the real bases positive implicit beliefs about the self, the world and others and contributes the social and cultural elements that promote mental health (Blanco & Díaz, 2005; Páez et al., 2007). By incorporating the social component to the individual's well-being, we observe relationships framed in a cultural environment that contributes to elements that promote the development of psychosocial well-being/discomfort.

The concept of psychosocial well-being applies to both the individual and the collective (Eiroa-Orosa, 2013). The individual is no more understood only from the individual and located in a cultural environment but to incorporate the relationship with others and how new meanings, feelings of recognition arise, favoring the well-being or psychosocial discomfort from the collective.

From Occupational Therapy, the concept of discomfort has been scarcely addressed, preferentially defined from the Medicine area as a subjective sensation by a person in which their physical or mental well-being is absent or diminished so that they cannot be normally developed in daily life (Salazar & Sempere, 2012). Discomfort is a subjective sensation that affects the daily development of the individual and their collective relationships. From the biomedical analysis, aspects such as daily experiences or experiences and how social factors influence the configuration of the individual are not considered. Psychosocial well-being/discomfort can be understood from the meanings that public transportation drivers give to experiences in the social world. Thus, the relationship that drivers establish with their family, colleagues, terminal administrators, bosses, managers, and passengers are fundamentally social and cultural elements of the collective occupation. As Palacios (2017, p. 58) highlights, psychosocial well-being has to do with the way one feels, how one performs, and how one relates to others. The focus is on the experience expressed in the discourse of the drivers understood as the main actors in the public transportation system who, due to the mercantile and individualistic logics that sustain the free market economic system, have been historically invisible from the daily life of society.

From his experience, the person ceases to be understood from the individual and located in a specific cultural environment, to incorporate the relationship with others and how from these new meanings, feelings of recognition with otherness that favor well-being/discomfort from the collective arise. Cited this phenomenon in Palacios (2017, p. 34, Ramugondo & Kronenberg, 2015) conceptualize it as:

Occupations are carried out by groups in everyday situations and that can reflect belonging, interaction, and cohesion; on the other hand, it refers to the occupations in which individuals, groups, communities, and/or societies are involved in everyday contexts. They may reflect an intention towards social cohesion or dysfunction, and/or advance or retreat towards a common good.

3 Methodology

In this research, the methodology was a qualitative design to approach “[...] the perspective of the participants [...] about the phenomena that surround them, deepen their experiences, perspectives, opinions, and meanings, that is, how the participants subjectively perceive their reality” (Hernández et al., 2010, p. 494).

The focus of the research is phenomenological which, as mentioned (Hernández et al., 2010, p. 494) “[...] it aims to describe and understand the phenomena from each participant and the perspective collectively built”. In this sense, we intended to deepen and describe reality based on the voice and experience of the drivers.

The first actions to develop this investigation were to approach four bus lines, between July - August 2018. However, for reasons of access, by the openness and ties of trust generated towards the investigation, we could only work with the Buses Campanil and Buses Tucapel lines.

The study participants were seventeen male drivers between 40 and 72 years old, residents of the province of Concepción, the eighth region of Chile, who agree to collaborate with the research by reporting their experiences and life trajectories voluntarily.

The semi-structured interview was the instrument used to develop the data collection process. The interviews were carried out between September-October 2018, in their places of work, rest and meeting, and stored in audios. The information processing consisted of transcribing the audios of the interviews and, from the reading of the written texts obtained, relevant topics, categories, and subcategories emerged.

For the ethical considerations of this research, the drivers signed an informed consent form that safeguards and protects their identity, ensuring their voluntary collaboration in the research.

4 Results and Discussion

The expressed by the drivers of the tendered transportation of the city of Concepción was fundamental for this research. This information was collected through seventeen semi-structured interviews, emerging well-being/psychosocial discomfort that is generated in the collective occupation in the territory they transit and the relationships with others in the territory. The participants were twelve drivers from the Buses Tucapel line and five from the Buses Campanil line.

4.1 Drivers’ experiences on the street and the bus

According to the study participants about the experiences of psychosocial well-being/discomfort that emerge in the territories they travel daily, the first thing that they highlight is the insecurity during the journey is dependent on the territory due to having been victims of assaults more than once, identifying specific places in the territory as dangerous, as noted by MCR driver:

Bucha is different places because we drive from Lomas to Hualpén in an emergency, but I don't make a difference with the people, I greet everyone. There are places in Hualpén, for example, where you walk in fear but you don't show it, you can't show it.

The territory, “[...] historically builds forms of interaction, uses and differentiated meanings that speak to us of a multiple reality in dimensions and actors” (Aguilar, 2000, p. 89). In this sense, the perception of insecurity from the drivers is understood as an expression of psychosocial discomfort, configured from previous experiences given in a specific territory, determining the interaction between the collective occupation and the territory in which they drive. Placed in the discourses of the participants of the collective occupation, they are signified and resignified as high-risk experiences and forces them to assume attitudes of caution, alertness or fear when feeling vulnerable in certain circumstances, conditioning and differentiating the relationship established with the inhabitants of a sector in comparison with others.

The drivers express that the machine is a source of work, the bus is the only source of work, therefore, they must take care of it and make the corresponding repairs, as stated by CPA:

It is my work tool, it is my jewel, it is what I live with, it is what gives me daily sustenance.

Work is valued as a practical action aimed at satisfying needs [...] it generates the goods and services that allow it to satisfy its needs, but more importantly, it generates its vital spaces of existence, building the devices that allow it to make its project of lifetime (Delgado & Malet, 2007, p. 11).

In this way, a relevant finding is that the machine is signified as an object that mediates the relationship between collective occupation, the world of work, and psychosocial well-being/discomfort by becoming a work tool represented by the individuals as a sense of ownership because it contributes to the achievement of this well-being based on the satisfaction of needs.

Another remarkable element obtained from the drivers’ statements is the affective bond with the machine, they refer to talking with “it” and having affective actions with it, as stated by IOG:

It’s as if it were mine, I don’t think I take care of my wife as much as I take care of the machine [laughs] yes, my wife tells me why you didn't marry a Tucapel, she tells me [laughs] I spend it all the time here, it is true.

From the theory of the network actor Bruno Latour, as the main exponent, he opposes the essentialism of society, which tends to define a priori the constitutive elements of the social, to propose sociology of associations, in which these elements are constituted relationally in a network of heterogeneous entities. This network includes human beings and all kinds of objects, natural or produced by human beings, including symbolic ones (Pozas, 2015, p. 2). Thus, the need to understand the particular ways in which actors (human and non-human without distinctions) interrelate and mediate their actions arises (Sánchez-Criado, 2006). The concept of the machine is an extension of the driver, in which it is not possible to be a subject. This is a fundamental and indivisible aspect of the collective occupation. This affective bond that the driver establishes with the machine is since being a work tool requires that drivers spend a big part of their day with it.

4.2 Collective occupations, psychosocial well-being/discomfort in drivers

Drivers identify that the conversation between trips generates well-being, stating that sharing (anecdotes of daily work, food) with their colleagues between trips is the most rewarding part of the working day. There are disputes for the remuneration of the street territory until the route starts moving again, and the coexistence continues being the same as always, as JBC comments:

It is one of the few companies where there is a lot of coexistence, we suddenly arrive here, we get together for 20-30 minutes and we go again.

Palacios (2017) states that collective occupation is the expression of cultural, historical, economic, and material aspects given in the scene of the daily life of the communities. In this research, we understood that drivers, by being with others and sharing experiences, build collective occupation expressed in practices such as sharing with their colleagues, drinking coffee, smoking a cigarette, actions that are signified by drivers as generators of well-being and contribute to the strengthening of a collective identity, an identity to which the terminal territory contributes by transforming it into the stage in which aspects of the collective are expressed.

The organization of recreational instances once a year contributes to the psychosocial well-being of drivers, as defined by ARV:

We schedule a trip, we join the small group that we always go, we are 15-20 but all calm.

Collective occupations enhance the sense of community, generating the possibility of cohesion, subjective well-being, belonging and social identity (Maya-Jariego, 2004). This research identifies that public transportation drivers recognize practices that favor group cohesion, which is linked to sharing in spaces other than those in the workplace, strengthening the feeling of belonging to a group that is more beyond the daily work.

4.3 Practices to be and exist in common

One of the practices that drivers develop in common is cleaning the bus as a common action in free time and when necessary, according to JBC:

You have to keep it beautiful, keep it clean because it is for public service and take care of it.

Daily life “[...] shows us a subjective world, which I experience, but at the same time, that world is intersubjective, social, shared,” my world “[...] is a world that I live with others” (Barros, 2015, p. 2). The bus is understood as a territory, as a subjective world, and an extension of the subjectivity and corporality of each driver, which is a certain way expresses their identity, but at the same time, it is a shared territory with other individuals. In this way, the concern for the image projected by the machine is understood since through it, it is built as a social actor and at the service of the community in search of generating well-being in passengers, an action that aims to achieve the recognition of their work by the community, promoting subjective well-being in them as public transportation drivers.

Having breakfast and having lunch together in the terminal is identified as practices that generate group cohesion. The drivers affirmed that they use a specific physical space in the bus terminal to share with their colleagues at lunchtime, as PRV said:

We generally talk, have breakfast, eleven together.

A human being is ontologically communal and occupational. Therefore, we become part of it, we are inclined to accept propositions such as when there is a person, there is an occupation, understanding the latter as the synthesis of ourselves, it is what makes us be ourselves (Ramírez & Shlierbener, 2014, as cited in Pino & Ceballos, 2015). The bus terminal is meant by drivers as a common space for well-being and meeting, favoring expressions of collective identity, mediated by elements of the culture built around these spaces and territories, where talking, having breakfast allow the organization and configuration of a sense of belonging.

4.4 Social relationships that arise in the daily and family context

Regarding daily and family aspects, drivers report that long working hours hinder to reconcile family life, which negatively influences the dynamics since they are absent from important customs and celebrations of their loved ones, as RNE commented:

You go out early in the morning, evening comes, in the end, you don't see your children as they grow up, when they arrive home around noon, you don't finish your workday, you get home and they are sleeping already, and suddenly they challenge me and tell me “Dad when will you have more time to be with us” it is difficult, but I will try.

Regarding the reconciliation of family life and work, Barros (2015, p. 4) points out that “[...] daily life is the life of people, their very existence, it is the story of each individual here and now [...] a degree of naturalization and accustoming imposed from the relationship system not to see reality”. In this research, we can observe naturalization by drivers of long working hours that keep them out of the home during the day. This situation is directly related to the characteristics of the employment contract that stimulates the self-exploitation of the worker, as indicated by Han (2012, p. 20) “[...] the person performance is abandoned to forced freedom or the free obligation to maximize performance. The excess of work and performance is exacerbated and becomes self-exploitation”. These characteristics are typical of the free market system in the context of labor relationships, in which the psychosocial well-being/discomfort of the individual is socially valued based on the economic goods that they can acquire to establish supply and demand relationships in the market society that they are inserted.

Leaving here the gate to the outside, we are not friends, we do not know each other, each one fights for his own. But let's say a healthy, clean fight, not to harm the other, it is not that we are going to get here fighting looking at what you did to me.

“Praxis is not located in the context but rather one or another praxis produces its context, constantly reproducing itself, modifying itself” (Barros, 2015, p. 6). The doing determines the contexts, for the public transportation drivers, the street is not observed as hostile territory, it is at the moment of going out, in the search for daily economic sustenance for him and his family group, it is as a territory of dispute and struggle. This is a result of the competitiveness between the drivers of the lines and other bus lines. This stimulates competitiveness and individualism, configuring the street as a territory of self-exploitation, struggle, and resistance. In this way, in the face of an alienating social and economic system that is extremely demanding in doing and existing in the world of work, drivers organize and establish agreements that guarantee the union and cohesion of the collective occupation.

Referring to the socioeconomic achievements by drivers in their occupational and/or work performance, they express that their work activity has enabled them to acquire goods and services for them and their families, expressed in this way by BG:

I have had achievements also thanks to this. I always wanted to have a car and I bought it working here, I have my house paid for and that makes me feel calm in that regard.

“Assessment by the subject about the events, activities, and circumstances in which his life unfolds” (Zubieta et al., 2012, p. 68). As reported in this research by a group of drivers, the economic income received for their work has contributed to meeting different expectations and accessing a better quality of life, directly influencing their perception and construction of meanings in around the well-being that their work generates, responding to the commercial logic where well-being is linked to purchasing power and access to material and consumer goods.

There is a group of workers who recognize that work generates psychosocial discomfort because it is stressful since they must be aware of everything that happens in the street territory and what happens within the bus territory, in the words of the RVE driver:

The first days, good vibes, third and fourth, I'm about to explode, it is stressful and tiring, everyone gets tired, by the sight, I get tired because of everything and so, there is a lot of pressure.

Some investigations have supported that workers in the transportation sector are exposed to psychosocial risks, such as episodes of violence, long shifts, excessive demands, and irregular pay conditions, among others. These risks are directly related to the deterioration of the health of workers (Bravo & Nazar, 2015). Drivers must spend long working hours to reach the daily remuneration, their salary is directly proportional to the number of passengers that can be transported daily, evidencing job insecurity and consequently psychosocial discomfort. Common dissatisfaction in drivers in which the group identifies uniting under this feeling that is part of the collective occupation.

4.5 Experiences that provide psychosocial well-being/discomfort

Drivers who participated in this research associated with a union identify the organization as a means to resolve conflicts, a positive way of representing them when mediating any problem or need as workers. They feel calm and know the possibility of finding an answer from their employers to a problem, expressed by JS in the following way:

Any doubt, any question or any problem, one of the first to go is to them. They are the ones who guide us, they tell us what I should do, what I should not do, the union is super important. In anything, in conflicts with the company or anything else, the union is super important to us. It's super good.

Regarding the action, it is the collective nature of the courses of action, not only for production but also for the stabilization of meaning, whose consensus is necessary for the coordination of actions and the achievement of their objectives (Pozas, 2015). From this research and at this particular point, there is an agreement in the bus line drivers who are unionized. This organization of workers is an effective means that favors psychosocial well-being by posing and seeking solutions to common problems, both in the drivers and with the line administrators. The union is a space that drivers can claim their rights, which is expressed in the impact that their decisions and agreements have within the line and also in the world of public tendered transportation in the city of Concepción. Then, the practices and activities carried out by the union for this group of drivers are manifested in resistance to the liberalization of the labor market and defense for their rights that promote cohesion and a sense of belonging, giving shape and meaning to the collective occupation.

5 Conclusion

During this investigative process, we needed to immerse in what has been the social construction of the figure that is currently perceived as the driver of the public tendered transportation in Concepción, which for this investigation, and from the discipline of Occupational Therapy, was understood as an occupation collective. Through the discourses of drivers, we identified that historically their experiences and opinions regarding the public transportation system have been invisible and ignored by the authorities, who prioritize the efficiency of the service in response to commercial liberalization, unleashing an occupational injustice that leads to the occupational alienation of drivers.

The long working hours that public transportation drivers develop, (approximately seventeen hours a day), cause distancing from their closest family nucleus (wives, sons, and daughters), a situation that they perceive as generating psychosocial discomfort. In this way, the job insecurity typical of the liberalization of the market is clearly expressed since drivers adapt to the demands of the job. As Guajardo (2011, as cited in Palacios, 2017, p. 33) points out “[...] we are an occupation, that is, there is a field of social relationships that produce the reality and the individuals, that field, is historical, concrete and situated”. For this reason, this research observed that drivers spend long periods daily developing their work in exchange for the economic benefits that it grants them, in some cases leaving an occupational alienation in evidence.

By analyzing the collective occupation in this research, we identified different territories; the terminal as a meeting space where “we are all friends”, a relationship that changes when we go out onto the street, a space that drivers describe as the “jungle”. Thus, the street is identified as a field of struggle, competition, and permanent conflict. A territory where economic income is disputed, which largely in the free market economic system determines psychosocial well-being.

In this research, we identified that the collective occupation has a significant territory, the terminal, which provides comfort and security, and that it is used to protect from the conflict that is generated in the street, described by drivers as violent and aggressive, a product of the demand and competitiveness of the labor market to which they are exposed. As Maya-Jariego (2004) points out, this pre-existing agreement can be considered as a transversal practice of collective cohesion, which enhances the sense of community, generating the possibility of cohesion, well-being subjective, belonging and social identity and despite the dispute over the territory called “jungle” by the drivers. Upon reaching the terminal territory, conflicts are forgotten and companionship prevails, as an expression of the collective occupation that organizes to generate practices that try to resist the daily exploitation and self-exploitation generated by the labor market.

The union organization is an important factor as a generator of psychosocial well-being, allowing drivers to feel part of something greater, to strengthen emotional ties that give rise to solidarity, and to remain united in the conquest of collective rights and interests. Those drivers who are grouped in a union build the collective occupation from the practices of doing-in-common that allow a sense of belonging. Therefore, we can show that the union organization and the claim of workers' rights contribute to the provision of spaces in the terminal territory that favors the development of collective occupation. This is shown in instances of meetings to share daily experiences, organize activities that promote group cohesion and affective bonds that contribute to the solidarity of the group.

Those drivers who are not unionized do not problematize the need to organize, even reaching a negative view of unionization, relating it to the emergence of unnecessary problems. They state that each driver must look after their interests and when having some type of conflict, it should be resolved individually with the employer, its own, and prevailing logic of labor relationships in the free market system.

In this research, as reported by the drivers, there are two ways of being linked with the machine daily. The first is a bonding in which the machine is viewed as a source of work and sustenance for the family, which provides the means to obtain economic income, contributing to the satisfaction of needs and providing relative psychosocial well-being. The second is a bonding of an affective type in which this object evokes feelings of love and care as being another member of his family. Relationship between humans and non-humans that is signified by drivers as a generator of psychosocial well-being, elements of the material world (non-human) must be considered in the understanding of collective occupations.

Finally, in this research, we consider public transportation drivers in the city of Concepción as a collective occupation in motion. An occupation that is dependent on the unique characteristics of the territory where the bus travels.

It is also important to consider the strong emotional component that is generated in the collective occupation in motion, which contributes to the sense of belonging in the territory.

• How to cite: Parra Molina, V. A., Sepúlveda Carrasco, C. R., Hermosilla Alarcón, A. S., & Sepúlveda Cifuentes, F. Y. (2020). Experiences and meanings from collective occupations: a look at the well-being/psychosocial discomfort expressed by conducted public transportation drivers. Cadernos Brasileiros de Terapia Ocupacional. Ahead of Print. https://doi.org/10.4322/2526-8910.ctoAO2041
• Funding Source For the preparation, the research design, problem statement, theoretical reference, methodological reference, and data collection were developed with resources available for the degree seminar of the Occupational Therapy career at the Andrés Bello University, Concepción headquarters, in Chile. Some of the resources of the article that emerges from this research were funded by the researchers and other funding from the specific research functions performed by authors who have developed this work.

References

• Agudelo Bedoya, E., & Estrada Arango, P. (2013). Terapias narrativa y colaborativa: una mirada con el lente del construccionismo social. Revista de Trabajo Social Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, 29(29), 15-48. Recuperado el 21 de mayo de 2018, de https://revistas.upb.edu.co/index.php/trabajosocial/article/view/2325/2069
  » https://revistas.upb.edu.co/index.php/trabajosocial/article/view/2325/2069
• Aguilar, J. (2000). Las culturas del volante en la Ciudad de México aproximaciones etnográficas a los choferes del transporte público. Estudios sobre las Culturas Contemporaneas, 6(12), 85-110. Recuperado el 10 de junio de 2018, de http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=31601204
  » http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=31601204
• Barros, A. (2015). Crítica a la vida cotidiana desde la psicología social. Revista Vinculando Recuperado el 16 de mayo de 2018, de http://vinculando.org/psicologia_psicoterapia/critica-a-la-vida-cotidiana-la-psicologia-social.html
  » http://vinculando.org/psicologia_psicoterapia/critica-a-la-vida-cotidiana-la-psicologia-social.html
• Blanco, A., & Díaz, D. (2005). El bienestar social: su concepto y medición. Psicothema, 17(4), 582-589.
• Bozzano, H. (2012). El territorio usado en Milton Santos y la Inteligencia Territorial en el GDRI INTI: iniciativas y perspectivas. In Anales de 11º INTI International Conference Argentina. Recuperado el 16 de mayo de 2018, de https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00938820/document
  » https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00938820/document
• Bravo, C., & Nazar, G. (2015). Riesgo psicosocial en el trabajo y salud en conductores de locomoción colectiva urbana en Chile. Salud de los Trabajadores, 23(2), 105-114. Recuperado el 10 de junio de 2018, de http://www.scielo.org.ve/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1315-01382015000200004&lng=es&tlng=es
  » http://www.scielo.org.ve/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1315-01382015000200004&lng=es&tlng=es
• Caamaño, T., Castro, L., Moreno, A., & Rodríguez, M. (2017). El rescate del oficio de la pesca artesanal como ocupación colectiva la localidad de caleta Tumbes (Tesis de pregrado). Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile. Recuperado el 28 de mayo de 2018, de http://repositorio.unab.cl/xmlui/handle/ria/7323
  » http://repositorio.unab.cl/xmlui/handle/ria/7323
• Campos, G., Mihovilovich, A., & Fuentealba, M. (2014). Carretas, carros de sangre y tranvías en Concepción: transporte público entre 1886 y 1908 Chile: Archivo Histórico de Concepción.
• Crepeau, E., Cohn, E., & Schell, B. (2011). Willard and Spackman: terapia ocupacional. España: Panamericana.
• Delgado, M., & Malet, D. (2007). El espacio público como ideología. Jornadas de Marx siglo XXI, Universidad de la Rioja Logroño: Universidad de Barcelona.
• Eiroa-Orosa, F. (2013). Cambio sociocultural y Bienestar psicosocial. Revista Psicologia Política, 47(1), 39-53. Recuperado el 20 de junio de 2018, de https://www.uv.es/garzon/psicologia%20politica/N47-3.pdf
  » https://www.uv.es/garzon/psicologia%20politica/N47-3.pdf
• Elias, N. (1990). Compromiso y distanciamiento: ensayos de sociología del conocimiento. Barcelona: Ed. Península.
• Figueroa, O. (2005). Transporte urbano y globalización: políticas y efectos en América Latina. Revista Eure, 31(94), 42-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0250-71612005009400003
  » http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0250-71612005009400003
• Giménez, G. (2005). Territorio e identidad. Breve introducción a la geografía cultural. Trayectorias, 7(17), 8–24. Recuperado el 2 de julio de 2018, de http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=6072219004
  » http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=6072219004
• Guajardo, A. (2011). Prologo. In C. Rojas (Ed.), Ocupación: sentido, realización y libertad: diálogos ocupacionales en torno al sujeto, la sociedad y el medio ambiente (p. 13-19). Colombia: Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
• Han, B. (2012). La sociedad del Cansancio. España: Herder.
• Hernández, R., Fernández, C., & Baptista, P. (2010). Metodología de la investigación México: Interamericana Editores.
• Kronenberg, F., Simó, S., & Pollard, N. (2006). Terapia Ocupacional Sin Fronteras, Aprendiendo del espíritu de supervivientes. Buenos Aires: Ed. Panamericana.
• Latour, B. (2003). The Promises of constructivism. In D. Ihde & E. Selinger (Eds.), Chasing Techno-science: Matrix for Materiality (pp. 27-46). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Maya-Jariego, I. (2004). Sentido de comunidad y potenciación comunitaria. Apuntes de Psicología, 22(2), 187-211.
• Morrison, R., Olivares, D., & Vidal, D. (2011). La filosofía de la Ocupación Humana y el paradigma social de la Ocupación: algunas reflexiones y propuestas sobre epistemologías actuales en terapia ocupacional y Ciencias de la Ocupación. Revista Chilena de Terapia Ocupacional, 11(2), 102-119. http://dx.doi.org/10.5354/0719-5346.2011.17785
  » http://dx.doi.org/10.5354/0719-5346.2011.17785
• Páez, D., Morales, F., & Fernández, I. (2007). Las creencias básicas sobre el mundo social y el yo. In J.F. Morales, M. Moya, E. Gaviría & I. Cuadrado (Coords). Psicología Social (pp. 195-211). Madrid: Mc Graw Hill.
• Palacios, M. (2015). Sentido de comunidad y ocupaciones colectivas. In Anales de 1° Congreso Chileno de Terapia Ocupacional: 50 años de Terapia Ocupacional en Chile: Prácticas, Epistemología y Realidades Locales Chile: Colegio de Terapeutas Ocupacionales de Chile.
• Palacios, M. (2017). Acerca de sentido de comunidad, ocupaciones colectivas y bienestar/malestar psicosocial. con jóvenes transgresores de territorios populares (Tesis doctoral). Universidad Central de Cataluña, Espanha. Recuperado el 20 de junio de 2018, de http://repositori.uvic.cat/bitstream/handle/10854/5286/tesdoc_a2017_palacios_monica_acerca_sentido.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
  » http://repositori.uvic.cat/bitstream/handle/10854/5286/tesdoc_a2017_palacios_monica_acerca_sentido.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
• Pino, J., & Ceballos, M. (2015). Terapia ocupacional comunitaria y rehabilitación basada en la comunidad: hacia una inclusión socio comunitaria. Revista Chilena de Terapia Ocupacional, 15(2), 1-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.5354/0719-5346.2015.38167
  » http://dx.doi.org/10.5354/0719-5346.2015.38167
• Pizarro, E., Estrella, S., Figueroa, F., Helmke, F., Pontigo, C., & Whiteford, G. (2018). Entendiendo la justicia ocupacional desde el concepto de territorio, una propuesta para la ciencia de la ocupación. Journal of Occupational Science, 25(4), 16-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2018.1487262
  » http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2018.1487262
• Pozas, M. (2015). En busca del actor en la teoría del actor red. In G. Zabludovsky & S. Tonkonoff (Eds.), Pensar lo social: pluralismo teórico en América Latina (pp. 399-416). Argentina: CLACSO. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvn96fvk.27
  » http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvn96fvk.27
• Ramugondo, E. L., & Kronenberg, F. (2015). Explaining collective occupations from a human relations perspective: bridging the individual-collective dichotomy. Journal of Occupational Science, 22(1), 3-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2013.781920
  » http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2013.781920
• Salazar, J., & Sempere, E. (2012). Malestar emocional: manual práctico para una respuesta en atención primaria. Spain: Generalitat Valenciana.
• Sánchez-Criado, T. (2006). La teoría del actor red. In Anales de Seminário de Estudios sobre Mediacion em Arte y Ciencia (SEMAC) Espanha: Universidad Autónoma de Maddrid. Recuperado el 2 de julio de 2018, de https://sociologicas.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/tomas-sanchez-criado-la-teoria-del-actor-red.pdf
  » https://sociologicas.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/tomas-sanchez-criado-la-teoria-del-actor-red.pdf
• Zubieta, E., Muratori, M., & Fernández, O. (2012). Bienestar subjetivo y psicosocial: explorando diferencias de género. Salud y Sociedad, 3(1), 66-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.22199/S07187475.2012.0001.00005
  » http://dx.doi.org/10.22199/S07187475.2012.0001.00005

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  07 Dec 2020
• Date of issue
  Oct-Dec 2020

History

• Received
  23 Dec 2019
• Accepted
  27 Aug 2020