Document(s) 6 de 11

(Re)thinking the Links

In recent years, discussion of young people’ social participation has nearly always turned fatalistic. Society perceives the lack of socio-political participation by young people and hastily holds them responsible, generally comparing them

^* About the authors:

Juarez Tarcísio Dayrell is responsible for the study in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region. He is Associate Professor at the Education Faculty (FAE), Minas Gerais Federal University (UFMG), Ph.D. in Education (São Paulo University, USP) and coordinator of the FAE/UFMG Youth Observatory (Observatório da Juventude).

Geraldo Pereira Magela Leão is responsible for the study in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region, Associate Professor at the Education Faculty (FAE/UFMG), Ph.D. in Education (USP) and member of the coordination of the FAE/UFMG Youth Observatory.

Nilma Lino Gomes is responsible for the study in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region, Associate Professor at the Education Faculty (FAE/UFMG), Ph.D. in Social Anthropology (USP), member of the coordination of the FAE/UFMG Youth Observatory and coordinator of the UFMG’s Affirmative Action Programme.

with other, supposedly ‘more participatory’ generations. Besides reinforcing stereotypes of ‘alienated youth’, this view leads to a prescriptive approach holding onto an ideal of youth participation that fails to match young people’s expectations or the conditions necessary for them to engage in social and political action.

More than calling attention to youth participation or the lack of it, what is needed is to question the context in which young people are seeking, in one way or another, a place in society. What are their social and economic circumstances and what role do these play in young Brazilians’ participation experiences? What conditions and spaces are available for them to participate socially and politically? Does a young person’s experience stimulate them to participate in such a context? It is fundamental that we examine the socio-economic and educational context influencing – or failing to influence – movement towards participation, and learn more about the places, times and situations young people find themselves in socially. This entails getting to know this generation of youth better, and considering the conditions they work under and their access to education and cultural goods. In addition, the questions and issues that most motivate them, and the spaces and frameworks that they inhabit must be studied.

In an attempt to explore the role that the educational experience is playing in the process in greater depth, we elaborate on some thinking about youth participation in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region (BHMR). We ask ourselves how much the school organization model and its dynamics produce a favourable environment where youth participation can develop. This thinking is based on local and national data from the study Brazilian Youth and Democracy: Participation, Spheres and Public Policies (Ibase 2006), both its quantitative version (an opinion poll) and its qualitative version (the Dialogue Groups), which were conducted between July 2004 and November 2005.¹

The socio-cultural profile of youth in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region

The ‘youth condition’

To begin with, one must recognize the difficulties in even defining ‘youth’ as a category: what is youth after all? This debate² has figured in the sociology of youth since its origins in the early 20th century and has been considered from the widest possible range of approaches. Stated briefly, the difficulties in defining a youth category can be said to stem in part from the fact that it constitutes a social condition and, at the same time, a type of representation (Peralva 1997).

Youth is understood here as a socially-constructed category that gains specific shapes in different historical, social and cultural contexts and is characterized by a diversity in conditions which include social (class origins, for instance), cultural (ethnicity, religious identity, values etc.), gender and even geographic, among others. Besides being shaped by its diversity, youth is a dynamic category that shifts as social changes take place in the course of history. In fact, rather than ‘youth’, what exists are young people, the individuals who experience and feel youth according to their specific socio-cultural context.

Rather than conceptualizing youth, we opted to work with the notion of ‘youth condition’ which we considered more appropriate to the aims of the discussion. From the Latin conditio, it refers to a mode of being, a situation in life, and in society. However, it also refers to the circumstances by which such a mode or situation can be ascertained. To speak of a ‘youth condition’ is therefore to speak in two dimensions. It refers to the way a society constitutes and gives meaning to that moment in the life cycle, in a historical and generational context. However, it also refers to a situation, that is, the way the condition is lived out in terms of the various aspects of social differentiation – class, gender, ethnicity, etc. Our analysis takes into account both the symbolic dimension and the factual, material, historical and political circumstances in which youth is socially produced (Abramo 2005; Margulis 2000).

Even when working with data that aggregate youth in the 15-24 age bracket, the various objective conditions and the perceptions of the senses of being young must be considered. We know that ‘arbitrary aggregation by age does not summarize the identifications possible in a given set of men and women brought together in a research population, but it does make it possible to perceive common generational experiences’ (Ibase 2006: 8). It therefore allows us to think about a portion of the population that have the same times and places in common when speaking of sensibilities, knowledges, memories, and historical and cultural experiences.

In this way, we think about aspects of the youth condition of BHMR residents, with a view to exploring our understanding of who these young people are in greater depth, followed by an analysis of their experiences of social participation. Finally, we will discuss the role of school and school experiences in this process.

The youth condition’s multiple dimensions in the BHMR

A first aspect of the youth condition is the family relationship. Data from the opinion poll³ indicate that the large majority of the interviewees (89.2 per cent) are single, suggesting that they still live with their family of origin. However, a significant percentage (9.5 per cent) of the young people are married or living together. These figures underline the trend towards postponing the moment of independence from the family, which is reiterated by other studies on the prolongation of youth.

Consistent with these figures, the great majority (81.8 per cent) have no children. However, nearly twice as many youth have children (18 per cent) than are married. This is evidence that a good number of young people are parents, but do not live together, which is common in cases of teenage pregnancy, for instance. Even though the figures do not permit more substantial inferences, some studies consider active sexuality dissociated from the reproductive function to be a feature of the contemporary youth condition (Abramo 2005). This situation provides the grounds for examining gender relations and what part these play in shaping the youth condition in Brazil.

Another dimension that affects the youth condition is colour/race. In this study, a large number of the interviewees (36.5 per cent) classified themselves as ‘brown’, while 19.3 per cent classified themselves as ‘black’. Adding these two figures together we can see that the ‘black race’ totals 55.8 per cent of the population. The significant difference between the percentages of brown and black is interesting and may signal difficulty in accepting a black identity, a phenomenon observed in other studies. Finally, 35.1 per cent of the young people considered themselves ‘white’, 5.3 per cent ‘yellow’ and 3.1 per cent ‘indigenous’.

Religion is also a constituent of the youth condition and, as will be seen below, occupies an important place among the loci of youth participation. In this study, most of the young people interviewed in the BHMR declared themselves to be Catholic (61.5 per cent), followed by Evangelical/Protestant (22.7 per cent). A smaller percentage are Spiritualist (1.8 per cent); followers of Eastern religions (0.3 per cent); Jewish (0.1 per cent) and followers of Afro-Brazilian religions (0.1 per cent). It is important to note that a significant percentage of young people (9.5 per cent) declared that they believe in God, but do not belong to any religion. Only 1.6 per cent responded that they do not believe in God.

Young people and work

Unlike in European countries, youth in the BHMR and in Brazil in general, do not characteristically benefit from any moratorium on working. The study indicated that, in the BHMR, 41.7 per cent of the young people between 15 and 24 years of age were working. For this contingent, work is a factor that enables them to experience the youth condition by assuring them the necessary minimum resources for leisure, courting or consumption. Most of the group (37.9 per cent) were formally employed, while 20.1 per cent were working without having signed labour documents and 22.3 per cent declared themselves self-employed.

Studies indicate that it is common to start working at a variety of ‘odd jobs’ during adolescence, with this instability tending to persist throughout youth. This study confirms that finding, since when the two latter percentages are summed, 42.4 per cent of the young people can be considered to be in a precarious work situation, with no proof of experience nor any qualification with which to improve their placement in the market.

Correlating these data with social class, schooling and colour makes clear the perverse effect of social inequality in the region and in Brazil. Poorer, black youth with less schooling – exactly those who require greater attention from the government – are the ones who work under the most precarious conditions.

Although gender was not taken into account as a focus in the study, including this category to these factors would possibly yield an even more complex picture of the relationship between youth and work. What we can say is that, for a large portion of the young people in the BHMR, the work world is a social setting that both includes and subordinates them.

Regarding the realities of youth unemployment, the study observed what other Brazilian studies have been reporting since the 1990s: unemployment rates are higher among youth than in any other age bracket. In the sample surveyed, 58.3 per cent of the young people were not working. Most (64.5 per cent) of these were looking for work at the time of the study, which may reveal the difficulties young people face when looking for their first job, a phenomenon still awaiting solutions from government.

It is no surprise that the issue of work came up as one of the young people’s major concerns during the Dialogue Groups. The discussions emphasized the need to expand the labour market, reinforcing how central the ‘first job’ issue is. Another major concern voiced in the groups is how unemployment is associated with a lack of opportunities to learn a profession through internships or vocational courses. Furthermore young people communicated a demand that deserves special attention - an end to prejudice, particularly with regards to race and gender. ‘If it’s between a blonde girl and a mulatta, you can be sure – and this happened in my neighbourhood – they’ll give preference to the blonde’.

In short, for a large portion of young people, the work world could be considered as a mediator, both actually and symbolically, in how they experience the youth condition. Along with other social dimensions, work can be said to ‘make youths’, even when the diversity of young people’s situations and attitudes with regard to it are considered.

Sociability, culture and leisure

Another dimension of the youth condition is sociability. The centrality of this issue is made clear in a series of studies⁴ on the subject. Sociability develops in peer groups, especially at places and during times of leisure and entertainment, but also in institutional settings such as school and work. Sociability appears to respond to young people’s need for communication, solidarity, democracy, autonomy, exchange of emotionality and, particularly, identity.

In this study, sociability emerges as a dimension underlying two others: access to culture and leisure, and social participation in groups. In the Dialogue Groups, the young people discussed culture and leisure and raised some important issues. The first relates to access itself since they refer to work as a precondition for leisure activities, demonstrating that increasingly leisure is determined by market relations anchored in the consumer capacity of young people and their families (Brenner 2005). What the young people make clear is that, more and more, any cultural or leisure activity entails costs such as travel fares and admission prices.

This situation clearly reflects the restricted range of leisure options open to a large portion of Brazil’s youth population, allied with how ineffectual the democratization of culture has been in Brazil, as noted in other studies.⁵ The demands made in the Dialogue Groups were consistent with these realities as young people demanded that cultural and leisure facilities be decentralized and better distributed across the metropolitan region in order to ensure free public access.

Under these circumstances, school emerges as a demand in terms of culture/leisure. It resurfaces as one of the only public facilities and places available to poor communities. This justifies the demands for schools to be opened on weekends or for culture centres to be built at schools. In addition to access, the need for cultural events to be better publicized was also raised. They argued that although there are free, public cultural events in the city, the information does not reach all young people. This information is restricted to the central regions and the middle strata of the population.

It is also important to note is that shopping centers feature prominently as leisure settings. These can be regarded as an alternative, given the lack of public meeting places, but also as ‘safe’ places, underlining the relationship between leisure and violence. During the Dialogue Groups, the issue of violence emerged several times as one of the young people’s greatest concerns.

Given the modern-day plague of banal violence, young people’s demand for safety in peripheral areas, is the same as the concern among urban, middle-class adults. Feelings of insecurity in Brazil are a fact of life. However, we know that the sum total of social, racial and gender inequalities plus extreme poverty, leads to a tendency to stereotype poor, young, black males from peripheral communities as more violent. As such they are the main victims of police violence. These young people suffer from a terrible dilemma since they live at the crossroads of social, racial, gender and police violence. In that context, just like any citizen, they claim the freedom to come and go in safety and demand that the police ethically perform their duty.

Social participation in youth groups is another dimension that organizes young people’s sociability, culture and leisure. This participation will be examined later, but here it is important to raise some points directly related with the youth condition. Although the survey shows a relatively small number of young people involved in cultural groups, we should not disregard a trend detected in other studies. Culture appears to be the preferred dimension for the practices, representations, symbols and rituals young people use to demarcate a youth identity. That is to say that, in the existing context of diversity, the youth condition is experienced through symbolic mediation reflected in the widest variety of cultural expressions. For this reason, cultural groups take on a significant role. They make possible the practices, relationships and symbols through which young people set up their own spaces, expanding the circuits and networks where exchange takes place and which are the preferred means by which they enter the public sphere.

Access to information

Asked where they usually obtain their information, the large majority of the young people from the BHMR said television (83 per cent), followed by newspapers and magazines (52.7 per cent), radio (49.2 per cent), friends, group or colleagues at work (24.3 per cent), Internet (21.5 per cent), family (17.8 per cent) and, lastly, teachers (13.3 per cent) and school friends (11.8 per cent). Interestingly, school has ceased to be the prime source of information for new generations, reinforcing the need to rethink its social function. At the same time, the results demonstrate the centrality of the media. This cultural trait which is characteristic of contemporary youth cultures calls for further research.

Access to the digital media – The computer and the Internet deserve more detailed analysis because of their importance in how information is accessed and distributed. In the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region, only 42.2 per cent of young people reported having access to a computer. Significant differences emerge in terms of social categories, such as social class, race/colour, schooling or school type. Therefore the profile of most young people with access is white, upper- and middle-class with higher education after private schooling. Even fewer had Internet access: 34.5 per cent of the young people reported accessing the Internet, just over one third of the young people in the BHMR. There were no significant differences by gender or age, but once again socio-economic characteristics proved a major turning point by replicating the same situation as described above.

The data provide evidence that digital inclusion is intimately linked to people’s ability to purchase computers in a context where micro-credit policies are scarce. They also show that public digital networks are not extensive and have little capillary penetration. This indicates that measures taken towards digital democracy have not reached most of the BHMR young people and that access to digital media and the Internet continues to favour the elite. There is therefore a demand for government action to promote not just access, but also digital literacy, both of which are just as important today as access to and mastery of reading and writing.

Social participation and youth policy

The figures show that 20.7 per cent of young people in the BHMR participate in some kind of group of some kind which coincides with other studies on the subject. Generally speaking, that percentage yields different levels of participation according to personal attributes (gender, age), schooling and social background.⁶ Participation appears to be increasing among younger middle- and upper-class young people with more schooling.

Of the young people who took part in a group of some kind, 43.5 per cent engaged in religious activities and 27.1 per cent in cultural activities (such as music, dance and theatre). The groups that pursued sports activities accounted for 26.6 per cent. In the remaining types of activities, the percentages fall off significantly. This highlights the relative insignificance of the classic settings for participation, such as political parties and even student movements, which was mentioned by only 3.4 per cent of the young people.

In addition to religion and sport, leisure and culture activities very clearly have a strong presence, together involving more than half of the young people. This points to the motivating power of activities here symbolic meanings and collective identities are produced, whether these are specific cultural styles or shared social attitudes. This fact has already been signalled in other studies. (Sposito 2000; Melucci 1997).

Although cited by a less significant number (7.7 per cent) of respondents, participation in community movements raises some important issues to address. In this case participation tendencies are greater among the poorer, black and older young people. Although few young people presently participate, when asked if they had participated in any movement or meeting to improve life in their neighbourhood or city in the past, the percentage rose to 19.9 per cent. One hypothesis which remains to be investigated is whether young people possibly join in concrete action that yields short term results towards some kind of improvement in their neighbourhood or residence and does not require ongoing daily involvement.

Perceptions of participation

In the quantitative stage of the study, the young people were presented with phrases and asked to position themselves with regard to each of them, in an effort to gauge their perceptions of participation and politics.⁷ The respondents seemed divided between adhering to and valuing collective causes and supporting individualistic solutions. Generally, they tended to reproduce the commonly held negative images of politicians and their activities, revealing a remote and prejudiced view of the world of traditional politics.

These perceptions became evident in the Dialogue Groups, where the young people tended to reject any possibility of engaging in traditional forms of political participation, such as political parties, trade unions, the student movement or other social movements. While recognizing that these channels are important to satisfying social demands, they seemed to regard that kind of participation as institutional government action, and not as action by young people in frameworks like the student movement, student unions, etc. Our hypothesis is that a lack of knowledge about ‘political activities’, and engagement in collective pursuits, may be one of the reasons for this restricted view.

It also appears that the young people are indicating that more organized political participation belongs to the adult world. Moreover, they reduce political participation to the airing of grievances to established institutions such as the city council, city councillors or municipal government, which is a very specific form of traditional political engagement. We can infer that, generally speaking, the young people do not see themselves as stakeholders or agents that can intervene in their reality and in institutions. This appears to demonstrate a certain disbelief in the more traditional forms of political engagement, a lack of any broad knowledge of political affairs and little experience in action of this kind. However, it also is an alert that young people view limited scope for intervening in their own reality as stakeholders, subjects and citizens.

Young people’s selection of volunteer work as their ideal form of political activity demonstrates the tension between a favourable view of collective action and disbelief in the effectiveness of collective social and political action. The young people regarded – nearly always collective – volunteer action as the path by which it was possible for them to achieve their demands. It was clear in the discussions that they are aware of the limitations of this kind of participatory involvement, but admit that ‘at least it is something’. Their arguments suggested that this was the most flexible path in terms of available time and the degree of involvement demanded, and permitted different levels of engagement. The fact that this kind of action produces immediate, visible results, in addition to permitting direct control was an additional attractive aspect.

A number of hypotheses arise to explain young people’s perceptions of participation in public life. The emphasis on volunteer work may reflect the lack of channels for participation, which makes it impossible to stimulate, far less to experiment with, differentiated forms of social participation and also leads to disbelief in the effectiveness of collective action. It may also express the tension between solidarity and the Brazilian experience in this historical context, which is marred by social inequalities. In this situation, solidarity tends to follow a welfare work pattern, which is present in all social strata and reinforced by institutional religious practices. In this way, volunteer action as a cultural expression, is naturalized as a consequence of young people’s ‘good intentions’.

These data warrant an effort to produce denser theory on the subject to help. This could help us understand how young people position themselves in relation to national realities and the approaches move towards to actively engage in the social and political life of the country. We feel it is just as important to reflect on the role of school in this context, given that it is one of the few public institutions that more or less universally affects Brazilian youth. What relationship can we establish between youth participation and public school? What are the limits and scope of this institution regarding the social condition of Brazilian youth?

Youth participation: some thoughts

As mentioned above, we are trying to avoid reaching pessimistic conclusions and to go beyond the idealizations surrounding youth participation in the past. While the percentages preclude making comparisons with past generations, similarly there is little data on socio-political participation by the general population. This makes it difficult to know whether youth is the only segment that does not show high rates of participation or whether this is the case for the entire population.

One hypothesis that could explain the low rates of social and political participation by young people in the BHMR is the socio-economic context most of them live in, which does not encourage the hope and belief that their collective action may be capable of affecting their realities in any way. Nor does the context offer the means for creating habits and values favourable to exercise and learn about participation. This leads us to conclude that it is rather difficult to make democracy effective without a minimum level of equality in life conditions. The lack of spaces and situations for exercising and learning collective affairs and social participation must also be considered, since it is this kind of experimentation that allows young people to believe that acting collectively can bring results.

Another important aspect to address is the time and pace of contemporary youth, as indicated above. Studies show that youth participation has been characteristically fluid, nomadic and intermittent and also point to one-off group arrangements with goals that are specific and in the present.

These features are connected with the broad changes that have come about in complex societies, such as the speed of technological change, which heightens the uncertainties characteristic of our day and age (Leccardi 1991). Therefore, it is possible to argue that the spaces and stimuli for exercising and learning participation, as well as the relationship young people have with time, are variables that affect whether they effectively become involved in social and political matters.

One final thought has to do with the type of group and activity that young people are involved with. It is possible to raise the hypothesis, already voiced in other papers and discussions, that a participation process is underway which is distancing itself from the settings of formal politics, but is gaining strength in other types of collective actions in the public sphere. The data in this study indicate that the classical political arrangements, such as political parties and trade unions and even the student movement, are losing ground as the preferred settings for youth participation. Young people seem to be rejecting these traditional forms of participation, particularly where they are dominated by the vices of patronage and nepotism.

This phenomenon is also observed in other countries. In Europe, for example, studies indicate that young people are distancing themselves from trade unions, but not rejecting them; they mistrust political parties, but acknowledge a diffuse interest without the corresponding participation; and they seek politics without traditional labels designating left-or right-wing positions (Sposito 2000; Bendit 2000).

At the same time, young people show themselves to be more involved not just with religious activities, but with leisure and cultural groups and associations. This may indicate a broadening of collective youth interests and practices that produce coalescence around social interaction, collective practices and common interests. This kind of involvement points to youth identity and the very right to live one’s youth as possible motivations for social participation.

In addition, new forms of action and new issues seem to be connected to collective actions that take place in multiple forms and with varying degrees of social intervention in fluid rather than structured manners.

In light of the social condition of Brazilian youth, their participation experiences and their perceptions of politics, we must also question the role of schools, particularly public schools. To what extent does the institution of school foster experiences that stimulate learning and experimentation in social and political participation? Have the form and content of school organization prioritized schooling that enables young people to critically position themselves and envisage forms of collective action around their demands? Is it concerned with stimulating their participation in how schools are run and autonomous student organizations? From the point of view of social and political participation, what place does school occupy in young people’s lives?

School and youth participation

School has a place in young people’s lives. The question is what place that is and how it relates to youth participation.

The figures show that school is not absent from the lives of these young people, especially those from classes D and E. However, only 32.4 per cent have completed middle school, while 45.8 per cent did not finish middle school and 21.8 per cent only finished fundamental schooling. It is important to note that 54.5 per cent of the young people surveyed were not studying at the time of the survey, which indicates that we are still a long way from guaranteeing universal access to education.

In addition to the visible inequality in access to education, we should ask ourselves: what kind of school do young people attend, even if irregularly? Is it organizing itself to serve these individuals in their condition as young people? Serving them entails not just universalizing education, but assuring the physical, educational and symbolic conditions these and other individuals need at this time of their life. It also means building school facilities capable of leveraging the social networks that are characteristic of our human condition and so very present in the context of the youth condition.

One option would be to promote collective activities that stimulate participation in the school, such as debates, films and visits to exhibitions that enhance the quality of the young people’s education. Other appropriate activities could be characterized as social activities, such as excursions and parties; solidarity-based activities, such as community action or social work; and cultural activities, such as theatre, dance, music or cultural festivals.

The quantitative study showed that fewer than 50 per cent of the schools, both public and private, offer the kinds of activities mentioned above. Community action or social work activities constituted only a minor presence, and there were no significant differences in terms of social-class background, level of schooling or type of school. Therefore it is possible to infer that school has not stimulated its students, nor has it been a place for collective solidarity activities.

Only 33.6 per cent of the young people interviewed reported cultural activities at the schools they attend. Practically two thirds of schools in the BHMR did not stimulate or organize cultural activities in 2004, which proves how far removed they are from the world of young people. If cultural activities form part of the way young people live their lives, shouldn’t the school that serves this public include such activities in its timetable and on its premises?

In addition to this low percentage, it is also striking that cultural activities (festive events and so on) are more common at the schools attended by young people in classes D/E (35.8 per cent) than classes A/B (30.7 per cent), and more so at public schools (34.7 per cent) than at private schools (26.6 per cent). Additionally, these activities are more present in fundamental schooling (35.4 per cent) and middle school (36.3 per cent) than in higher education (23.7 per cent).

Certain inferences can be made about the possible forms of participation described above. The lack of public leisure and culture facilities in poor communities may explain why schools attended by young people from classes D/E hold more cultural activities that those attended by classes A/B. In these cases, school becomes one of the few public places where poor youth can engage in such activities.

The figure above seems to indicate that, despite adverse conditions, public schools can still be a place where collective activities are held for poor youth, permitting them some level of youth participation. The issues that then arise are: How are these activities organized? Who are the young people who take part? Do these schools manage to dialogue with the world of youth culture production in their surrounding neighbourhoods and to interconnect it with young people’s experience of school?

Another inference has to do with the decline in such activities at higher levels of schooling. Schools are less likely to have cultural or leisure facilities or a place where collective action is possible since they are more fixed in the world of ‘thinking’ and less in the world of ‘doing’ usually attributed to the adult world. However, this tendency may change with regards to public and private universities, perhaps giving grounds for another type of interpretation.

Also, the fact that culture, leisure and festive activities are found in schools, especially those with students from classes C, D and E, does not tell us anything about their quality. Often such activities are used as a way of occupying time at school and do not actually contribute to broadening – particularly poor – young people’s cultural capital. It seems to us that these schools tend to exploit relationships for the purpose of discipline and habit-formation, to the detriment of bringing greater quality to human relations.

Meanwhile, the opposite trend is observed in informational activities. The survey shows that films, debates, seminars, visits to museums and exhibitions are more present in schools attended by classes A/B. Similarly, these activities were proportionately more present at higher education private schools than at public or middle schools. These figures seem to show the tendency for private schools to favour academic activities over cultural or social activities.

The figures reveal that at most of the schools attended by these young people, particularly the poorer ones, activities that may be considered basic to any quality educational process are either carried out inadequately or not at all. This calls into question the orientation of the educational work done at these institutions, which appears to be directed more towards intramural school activities than to any interaction with the outside world. Additionally, one may question whether the physical conditions and technological equipment exist which would permit videos to be shown or Internet work to be carried out, for example.

It is also important to discuss whether or not debates are held in schools. We know that when these activities are properly organized they can become a valuable channel for information and a place to learn how to argue, discuss, exchange opinions and so on. The public and private schools attended by the BHMR young people organized debating activities of different profiles and through programs of varying intensities. The results of the study indicate that these activities were not central to these schools’ educational purposes. When they did take place they addressed the following topics: electoral politics, AIDS, sexuality, drugs, violence, human rights, the [school’s] political and educational project, rules, discipline and forms of evaluation in school and, lastly, urban issues, such as problems in the neighbourhood and the city.

Data analysis suggests that the schools are not very open to holding activities that go beyond the transmission of formal subject-matter. When they do, their provision is inadequate and precarious. Few teaching institutions create participatory situations favourable to solidarity or strengthening sociability, or which provide access to cultural activities and knowledge.

In the context of the youth condition, being poor and a student at a public school permits other ways of experiencing and expressing that condition as compared with being young at a middle-class, private school. The inclusion of the gender and race dimensions may provide another picture of the youth condition, as well as the relationships among youth, school and youth participation.

The role of schools in young people’s concerns and demands

Simply because youth turn their attention to school in order to question it, not necessarily to affirm the importance of its in the course of their youth, does not mean that this institution is not one of their concerns. The Dialogue Groups made it clear that although school consumes a large part of young people’s time, school education ranks fourth among concerns, being mentioned by only 14 per cent of the young people. Higher education and access to it were cited by only a small number of young people during the Dialogue Groups, despite the surveys finding high rates of exclusion from tertiary education.

The young people voice concrete demands in relation to school. They demand better-qualified teachers in order to develop a closer human and educational relationship with students. This demand overshadows the recognition that more funding is needed for education.

A striking feature of the five Dialogue Groups was the feeling of indignation and disappointment in relation to school. The young people complained of a type of human and educational relationship based on disrespect and scorn for the people being educated, and demanded a different posture from school and from teachers. This would seem to indicate a cultural and generational clash between students and teachers and disrespect for students as social subjects and citizens with rights.

Some young people went as far as to say that ‘the young teachers are the worst. They don’t listen to us, they say that now they’ve graduated and it’s our hard luck’. It is important to note that rather than the material and physical conditions of schools, young people call into doubt the human relationships developed at school. This situation deserves further thought, since educational times, spaces, curricula and projects are accomplished with real people. So if the educational relationship, as a human and professional relationship, is going badly, how is school supposed to rouse young people’s interest in greater participation? How can it make use of the possible options for reorganizing school time and space? How will it be able to involve young people in work projects? How will it stimulate them to participate in the various democratic processes within the school?

‘Extra-curricular’ activities: school at the weekends

According to local and national data, the number of young people who frequent schools on the weekends varies. Only 14.2 per cent of the young people in the BHMR frequent schools or universities on weekends. Hypotheses for this low level of participation may be that the schools and universities do not open on the weekends or that young people are uninformed about what the school is used for at these times or they are simply uninterested in taking part. These inferences can be substantiated only by in-depth research on socioeconomic, ethnicity/race and gender attributes aspects.

The figures do signal some ways forward to strengthen the relationship between school, young people and youth participation. Out-of-class activities, when properly structured and conceived as a student’s right as well as the right of their family, can result in a different kind of organization for schools, particularly public schools. Through these activities, schools are better administered as a time and place and their relationship with the community improves.

Neighbouring NGOs, social movements, youth culture groups and so on, can be partners in this endeavour. It is not a question of social and government projects to open schools on the weekend. Over and beyond these measures, which are not contemplated at all schools, there is the possibility for specific capacity-building projects with cultural agents, who in their free time can interrelate school subject-matter with a variety of cultural approaches.

Final remarks

Although participation is still timid when compared to the potential for youth action, this study shows the paths, possibilities and problems that young people encounter to participate in society. One possible reason for the small extent of youth social participation may be the lack of spaces and situations that young people in the BHMR find for engaging in and learning about collective life and social participation. Without such experimentation it is difficult for them to believe that results can accrue from collective action.

By and large, there is no policy to stimulate youth participation by setting up mechanisms to facilitate their involvement in the classic institutions, such as political parties and trade unions. Party youth organizations, as well as the youth coordination offices or secretariats of certain municipalities in the BHMR, do not tend to generate languages and activities that come close to young people’s world thereby reproducing the same defects as adult party organizations. There seems to be a lack of sensitivity in the adult world and its institutions in perceiving the world of young people and creating institutional spaces, in addition to school, that stimulate youth participation and the development of democratic values.

When the study examined the young people’s school experience in greater depth, a number of issues and questions were raised about whether or not the institution plays a part in youth participation processes.

School, as said above, is one of the prime settings for learning forms and mechanisms of participation. However, in the Dialogue Groups we were struck by the fact that, with very few exceptions, young people did not mention student organizations, or even communicate demands or proposals relating to participation of that kind. This evidence is reinforced by the quantitative survey which revealed that most of the students were unaware of, and less than one fifth were active in student unions, class representatives and councils, and school councils.

Schools, both public and private, do not appear to have prioritized participation as an important dimension of the educational process. Nor have they even informed young people about their existence. One easy explanation to these data is to attribute the problem to the young students and consider them uninterested or apathetic. However, as pointed out above, when schools do offer activities that are different, students tend to get involved. At half the schools that do offer the activities mentioned earlier, there is significant participation by more than 60 per cent of students. In the Dialogue Groups, the young people visibly wanted to take part in the discussions and final evaluations. An important number of them expressed the wish to continue the discussions and to engage in some kind of group. It remains to be seen whether or not the existing school structure, teaching staff and school administration will organize to leverage that willingness to participate.

Many studies point to the need to flexibly organize time and space and to construct political and educational projects that dialogue with the people in school and not just with the administrative bodies. In the case of schools designed for poorer children who live day-to-day situations of deprivation, social inequality and unemployment, there is an even greater need for this flexibility. That is to say that education as a social right should not reproduce the same conditions and realities of people’s lives which result from social inequalities. Nor should it reproduce the inequality bias between public and private, which has historically been an everyday part of life for Brazil’s people. However, in day-to-day school relations, in the organization of curricula, in out-of-class activities and in participation opportunities, the right to education is not yet being exercised. Initiatives in this direction do exist, but they do not yet represent the majority of education measures.

Nonetheless, individuals continue to act within schools, bringing with them their values, representations, questions, behaviour and experiences. It is in that context that youth is a presence in school. Given all the limitations, young people continue their accidented or successful careers in public or private schools. They abandon the teaching institution or are abandoned by it, and/or even return to adult education programmes.

Schools relate with these concrete young people and with their potential for participation. As the institutions responsible for education and for socializing knowledge, schools are called on to internally redefine themselves on the basis of their relationship with young people. The study reveals that, despite significant initiatives taken in Brazil, this process of redefinition is slow and tense. It is taking place in the context of the human and educational tension within schools, which is permeated by class, race and gender biases and, in the specific case of this study, of youth as a stage of human life and by the condition of youth in this stage.

It is important to bear in mind that there is a relationship between enabling youth participation and the place that young people occupy in society, in the family and in public policies. On their own, schools are finding it difficult to build and rebuild significant means of participation. Schools compete and coexist with social projects, other times, youth cultural movements, subsistence needs, inequality, violence and the challenge of enabling effective citizenship. Schools do not always manage to take account of the dynamics and the changes produced in the formative settings that exist in present-day society. This is a complex process that young people are involved in.

Despite the challenges, schools cannot shirk their responsibility to change. Since they are among the few places that most of the young people in the survey pass through, the institution is challenged to build another type of organization for educational work and to review its participation arrangements, considering not just the adult world, but also the times of life it coexists with.

Schools are increasingly challenged and called on to look to people as individuals and not just to the structure in which they are inserted. When the focus is on the active individuals involved, then the structure of schools, how their work is organized, their day-to-day activities and their attitudes tend to be called into question. Through this process, new responses can begin to be developed and different educational practices constructed.

The study revealed that schools are not yet the ones wished and hoped for by young people, particularly poor young people, who were the majority in the Dialogue Groups. These young people are in the schools, however, and they need to be seen, heard and taken into consideration in a way that goes beyond the existing socially and culturally constructed youth stereotypes. Perhaps one way of actually turning eyes and ears to young people and their paths to participation is the avenue signalled by the study. It is not enough to ‘discover’ that, despite the problems, a portion of Brazil’s youth goes to school. What we need to know is how and in what conditions they attend, by going beyond academic performance to investigate how youth construct the social networks and concrete means of participation that frame their lives inside and outside school.

What is it that schools have to learn from the challenge of youth participation? What can we understand about young people’s disappointment with the traditional forms of political participation and the continual appeal by schools to that very type of participation? Do schools perceive that, to the great majority of young people, their participation seems depleted and no longer figures as a possible avenue for collective action? Do they perceive that a good number of young people end up investing in another type of path to participation? For these purposes, perhaps we ought to question the understanding and meaning of ‘participation’. Constructed in their relationship with school, with society and with the ambiguity surrounding the real and effective exercise of social rights, young people point to other paths, to understanding differently, and to feeling differently. That process needs to be analyzed in greater depth.

Notes

¹  Juventude Brasileira e Democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas is a national study coordinated by Ibase and Pólis. It was undertaken in seven of Brazil’s metropolitan regions and the Federal District to examine the expectations and real involvement of young people in the public and political spheres and thus broaden debate about participation of young citizens in Brazil. It was also intended that the information generated should influence youth policies at the local, state and national levels. In Belo Horizonte, the study was coordinated by the Observatório da Juventude (Youth Observatory) at Minas Gerais Federal University (UFMG) (www.fae.ufmg/objuventude).

²  For a more extensive discussion of the notion of youth see Pais (1993), Margulis (2000), Sposito (2002), Dayrell (2005), and others.

³  From this point on, the figures relate to the opinion poll, which was conducted by probability sampling of a population of 1,000 young people aged 15 to 24, of whom 30.1 per cent were in the 15-17 age group, the same percentage in the 18-20 age group, and 39.8 per cent in the 21-24 age group. The sampling sought a certain homogeneity in terms of sex, that is, 49.6 per cent of the interviewees were male and 50.4 per cent female. Of these, 42.2 per cent were from social class C, 28.1 per cent from social classes D/E and, lastly, 19.8 per cent were from social classes A/B.

⁴  Of these we should mention Sposito (1993, 1999), Abramo (1994), Caldeira (1984), Minayo (1999), and Abromavay (1999). The same trend is seen among the Portuguese youth studied by Pais (1993) or the Italian youth studied by Cavalli (1997).

⁵  In the study conducted by Projeto Juventude (Abramo 2005), 39 per cent of the young Brazilians never had been to the cinema; 62 per cent had never been to the theatre; 92 per cent had never been to a classical music concert; and most (78 per cent) had never taken part in a public debate or conference (Brenner 2005: 200).

⁶  The proportion of young people in classes A/B (21.7 per cent) and C (22.3 per cent) who participate is greater than those from social classes D/E (15.7 per cent). Those young people with more schooling tend to participate more (22.9 per cent of those in middle school) than those who have less schooling (16.3 per cent of those who completed fundamental schooling).

⁷  The young people were asked to say whether they agreed totally, agreed partly, disagreed partly or disagreed totally with the following phrases: ‘Most politicians do not represent the interests of the public’; ‘Most politicians only work to further their own personal interests’; ‘Channels must be opened up for dialogue between citizens and government’; ‘People must join together to further their interests’ and ‘Each person has to look out for their own interests’.

References

Abramo, Helena Wendel & Branco, Pedro Paulo Martoni, Retratos da Juventude Brasileira: análises de uma pesquisa nacional, Editora Fundação Perseu Abramo, Instituto Cidadania (São Paulo, 2005).

Bendit, René, ‘Participación social y política de los jóvenes en países de la Unión Europea’, in Balardini, Sergio (Comp.), La participación social y política de los jóvenes en el horizonte del nuevo siglo, pp. 19-58, Flacso (Buenos Aires, 2000).

Brenner, Ana Karina, Carrano, Paulo & Dayrell, Juarez, ‘Juventude brasileira: culturas do lazer e do tempo livre dos jovens brasileiros’, in Abramo, Helena & Branco, Pedro Paulo Martoni, Retratos da Juventude Brasileira: análises de uma pesquisa nacional, Editora Fundação Perseu Abramo (São Paulo, 2005).

Dayrell, Juarez T, Gomes, Nilma L. & Leão, Geraldo M. P., Relatório Preliminar dos Grupos de Diálogo. Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte, Research Project Juventude Brasileira e Democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas (Belo Horizonte, June 2005).

Ibase, Juventude brasileira e democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas, mimeo (2004).

Ibase, Relatório Global. Research Project Juventude brasileira e democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas, Ibase & Pólis (Rio de Janeiro, Jan 2006).

Leccardi, Carmem, Orizzonte del tempo: esperienza del tempo e mutamento sociale, Franco Angeli (Milano, 1991).

Margulis, Mário, ‘La juventud es más que una palabra’, in Margulis, M. (Ed.), La juventud es más que una palabra, Editorial Biblos (Buenos Aires, 2000).

Melucci, Alberto, ‘Juventude, tempo e movimentos sociais’, Juventude e contemporaneidade. Rev. Brasileira de Educação, v, pp. 5-14, May-Aug/Sept-Dec, 1997, special edition, (São Paulo, 1997).

Morcellini, Mario, Passagio al futuro: formazione e sociallizzazione tra vecchi e nuovi media, Franco Angeli (Milan, 1997).

Pais, José Machado, Culturas juvenis, Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda

(Lisboa, 1993).

_____________, Ganchos, tachos e biscates: jovens, trabalho e futuro, Âmbar (Lisboa, 2003).

Novaes, Regina & Mello, Cecília, Jovens do Rio: circuitos, crenças e acessos, Comunicações do Iser, xxi/57, Iser (Rio de Janeiro, 2002).

Peralva, Angelina, ‘O jovem como modelo cultural’, Revista Brasileira de Educação, v, vi (1997), Anped (São Paulo, 1997).

Sposito, Marilia, ‘Algumas hipóteses sobre as relações entre movimentos sociais, juventude e educação’, Revista Brasileira de Educação, xiii (2000), Anped (São Paulo, 2000).

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