Criança como agente: uma análise a partir da experiência do quotidiano dos recolhedores de lixo no Bairro de Maxaquene C

Abstract

The present work analyzes the child's involvement in activities that generate income, having as a starting point the income generation strategies carried out by the children garbage collectors in the neighborhood of Maxaquene C. During the literature review, two perspectives stand out in the analysis of the subject, on the one hand, those of human development psychology and on the other hand, those of context-based social interaction. Those in developmental psychology argue that the child is in the biological maturation stage, during this process he is passive and dependent on adults. For those in developmental psychology, the child's involvement in activities that generate income takes place along the lines of exploitation. The second perspective argues that the child is an active agent within the social context that is inserted, in relation to the involvement of children in activities that generate income, this perspective argues that it takes place as a means of socialization, children's interaction and integration in “home activities” or domestic by extension. Therefore, it is perceived that the two perspectives do not open space for an analysis from the children themselves, and all look at children as passive, for some, passive in the face of exploitation, and for others, passive in the face of social rules, insofar as that the social is decisive for their involvement in activities that generate income. In order to understand what are the strategies carried out by children to obtain income, we carried out an ethnographic research with the children who collect garbage in the Maxaquene C neighborhood, whose data allow us to affirm that the child's involvement in activities that generate income is materialized in the molds of autonomy, negotiation skills, reciprocal relationships and leisure. An activity carried out in absentia of parents and guardians, and it is at odds with the aspirations of pragmatic normative models, insofar as that this activity falls within the typology of the so-called “child labor”. However, the funds raised are intended to meet the needs of leisure and fun, which are guaranteed by law in laws, decrees and conventions prescribed by pragmatic normative models.