Weaving territory: scenes of accusation and social unmixing in children’s drawings of their neighborhoods

Abstract

This study analyzed the drawings of 92 children representing their neighborhoods in Curitiba, Brazil, noticing the differences depending on where they live (south/far south) and where they are (center/outskirt). We concluded that children from a south neighborhood and part of the city’s far south showed varied and personalized spaces, demonstrating a non-social mixing while using the neighborhood. On the other hand, children from the farthest part in the far south complained about sedentariness and subalternity toward the space shared with adults, and hostile people and locations; school seems central to those. Thus, in general, children in the research highlight that territory is woven in the web of human interdependencies, contrived from different gradients of power and status, according to the roles played by children and their families play in the configuration of neighborhoods and the city.