"What are you going to be when you grow up?" The social representations of young people grounded on family work and youth

Abstract

The project lies on the assumption that limits interposing between different generations are historical and social constructions, express field-limiting power relationships, designate places, and produce orders and social hierarchies so that groups within a determinate biological age have heterogeneous psychosocial and cultural characteristics. The research aims at analyzing stresses existing amongst the family work conception, which is present in agrarian reform settlement projects, and young people's actual possibilities of professional insertion. Specifically, the intention is: to analyze the work insertion public policies oriented to the rural youth; to analyze the proposals of the rural social movements for the insertion of young people into the rural settlements, particularly involving family work; to identify the sociocultural and economic characteristics of the settled youth; to understand both the families' and youngsters' representations and expectations as regards life and work in the country. The research will be carried out in two settlements located in the countryside of the state of São Paulo, combining different procedures: direct observations, individual and collective interviews and documental and bibliographic review. Information will be confronted so as to identify consensuses and dissents amongst them. It is expected to deepen the knowledge of the complexity involving the young workers' identitary formation and contribute to the discussion on which public policies are necessary and adequate to promote not only their insertion but also their real working participation, whether in rural and/or urban environments. (AU)