Dynamics between potential for strengthening and weakening in the lives of public-school youth: action research with emancipatory workshops

Abstract

This action research analyzes the dynamics between the potentials for strengthening and weakening inherent in the social reproduction of young students. Based on the historical-dialectical materialism, particularly on the Theory of Social Determinants of Health, the analysis considered the universal, particular, and singular dimensions of social totality. The study was developed in 13 emancipatory workshops, during a five-month period, attended by 12 high school students from a public school in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The conditions of social reproduction exposed the participants’ family configurations, which suffer from precarious work and unemployment, the absence or inconsistency of paternal support, and a precarious process of resocialization and sociability. The teenagers discussed insecurities and difficulties faced by them in the territories where they live, family conflicts, the repercussions of social pressures to face the future, the place of school and family in their lives, and doubts regarding sexuality and drug use. The emancipatory action research allowed the participants to transcend appearance and demonstrated the essence of their reality, showing that emancipation is based on the understanding of the singular, particular, and universal dimensions of social relations.