This article analyses performance consumptions among young people. The theme is explored along two main axes. The first concerns the social heterogeneity in this field, considered on two levels: the different purposes for those investments - cognitive/mental and physical performance; and the different social contexts - university and work - where performance practices and dispositions may be fostered. The second axis explores the roles of pharmacological and natural consumptions, and their interrelationship, in the dissemination of these practices. The empirical data for this analysis were drawn from an ongoing research project on performance consumptions among young people (aged 18-29 years) in Portugal, including both university students and young workers without university education. The results correspond to the stage of extensive research, for which a questionnaire was organised at a national level, using non-proportional quota sampling. On the one hand, they show that (a) there is a hierarchy of acceptance of consumptions according to their purposes, with cognitive/mental performance showing higher acceptance and (b) both pharmaceuticals and natural products are consumed for every type of performance investment. On the other, the comparison between students and workers introduces a certain heterogeneity in this general backdrop, both in terms of the purposes for their consumptions and their opting for natural or pharmacological resources. These threads of heterogeneity will prompt a discussion of the dynamics of pharmaceuticalisation within the field of performance, in particular how therapeutic cultures may be changing in terms of the way individuals relate to medications, expanding their uses in social life.

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Resumo: Partindo da experiência de investigação num estudo sociológico sobre a psicofarmacologização da velhice, cuja metodologia incluiu a realização de histórias de vida, o presente artigo visa discutir alguns dilemas éticos e correspondentes desafios metodológicos inerentes a esta técnica e, em particular, as especificidades da sua aplicação junto da população idosa. O estudo, desenvolvido no concelho de Almada, contemplou a realização de 30 entrevistas de histórias de vida a idosos a viver sós, com idades compreendidas entre os 67 e os 90 anos, com autonomia física e cognitiva, inseridos em três diferentes contextos (Domicílio, Centros de Dia e Lares). Palavras-chave: histórias de vida, entrevista narrativa, questões éticas, população idosa. Histories of (a) life: challenges and ethical dilemmas in doing research with older people Abstract: Drawing from a sociological research on the psychopharmaceuticalization of old age, which methodological design included life stories, this paper aims to discuss some ethical dilemmas and corresponding methodological challenges brought by this technique, in particular, the specificities of conducting it with elderly people. The research took place in Almada, and the life story interviews were conducted with 30 individuals living alone (aged between 67 and 90), with physical and cognitive autonomy, in three different living contexts (Domicile, Adult Day Care Centres and Senior Residences).differences were not significant when using summated scales, except in case of severe skewness.

This paper presents a sociological approach to coffee consumption as a performance management strategy in work contexts, particularly in professions with intense work rhythms and highly responsive demands. Focusing on the daily work of three professional groups (nurses, police officers, and journalists), we analyze the social expression of coffee and how it is mobilized to deal with sleep problems, fatigue, concentration, or stress. For this purpose, three intertwined dimensions are explored: (1) the nature of these professionals’ work and the pressures for certain forms and levels of performance; (2) sleep problems as both a result of those work characteristics and a constraint on performance; and (3) the role of coffee in managing professional imperatives. The use of coffee appears as a legitimate practice in everyday working routines, due to its socializing markers, whereas additional benefits are attributed to the pharmacological properties of caffeine, given the perceived improvement in performance. The empirical data derive from a study carried out in Portugal on the use of medicines and food supplements for performance management, following a mixed methods approach. In particular, data from a questionnaire survey in a sample of 539 workers and information collected through seven focus groups with a total of 33 participants were used.