Political Participation in the School Context

Youths’ Experiences in Collective Action

Abstract

*Focus on Latin America | Research Articles

Youths’ involvement in politics today has generally taken the form of a pragmatic distancing from both parties and politicians, who are regarded with increasing suspicion and disbelief. Nevertheless, at stake is a definition of politics that is not restricted to party and voting behavior but includes alternative political practices created by youth living in the midst of radical social and cultural transformations. This paper discusses the possibilities of political action by youth in the school context. This implies a necessary re-signification of political practice from the point of view of those who, like young people, are positioned outside the institutionalized contexts of decision. Political participation is understood as the locus at which the unending contradictions and antagonisms of social life have to be addressed in order for collective action to be undertaken. The empirical work presented is based on group discussions with young people developing a collective project in a school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The “respect concept” developed by the group embodied the precious moment when the young people demonstrated the necessary conditions for collective action to take place. Analysis of the group process focuses on participants’ challenges with de-centering and transforming their perspectives in order to envision and produce collective work, as well as explores the role of the institutional context.