Brazilian youth experiencing poverty: Everyday life in the favela

ABSTRACT

Based on a comprehensive perspective of reality, this study aimed to analyze the representations that young dwellers of a Brazilian favela have about that place, focusing on the impacts on urban mobility and everyday life. Data were collected through workshops conducted with young people attending a non-governmental organization located in a favela in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The participants were seven youngsters aged 15-21 years. During the workshops, the participants constructed a “City of Youth” with the purpose of representing what they wanted for a city. They discussed whether or not there would be a favela in this city and its residents’ access to other spaces in the city, especially to leisure areas. It was observed that poverty is an important social marker in the representations about Brazilian favelas, and that the stigma associated with them are incorporated and reproduced by their youth. These facts reflect the possibilities and impossibilities of urban mobility of young favela dwellers, directly affecting their everyday lives and limiting their opportunities for social participation and access to social life.

Partiendo de una perspectiva integral de la realidad, este estudio se propuso analizar las representaciones que los jóvenes habitantes de una favela brasileña tienen sobre la misma, centrándose en sus impactos sobre la movilidad urbana y la vida cotidiana. Los datos se recopilaron en talleres realizados con siete jóvenes de 15 a 21 años de edad, quienes asisten a una organización no gubernamental ubicada en una favela de Río de Janeiro, Brasil. Durante los talleres, y con el propósito de que representaran cómo querían que fuera una ciudad, los participantes construyeron una “Ciudad de la Juventud”. En este sentido, discutieron si en esta ciudad habría o no una favela y cómo sería el acceso de sus residentes a otros espacios de la misma, especialmente a las zonas de ocio. Se constató que la pobreza constituye un importante marcador social en las representaciones sobre las favelas brasileñas y que el estigma asociado a ellas es incorporado y reproducido por sus jóvenes. Estas observaciones reflejan las posibilidades e imposibilidades de movilidad urbana de los jóvenes habitantes de las favelas, la cual afecta directamente su vida cotidiana y limita sus oportunidades de participación social y acceso a la vida social.

基于全面的现实角度，本研究旨在分析巴西贫民窟的年轻居民对该地的表述，重点是对城市交通和日常生活的影响。数据收集于年轻人参加的一个非政府组织的讲习班，该讲习班位于巴西里约热内卢市贫民窟。参加者为7位15至21岁的年轻人。在讲习班期间，参加者建造了一个“青年之城”，以代表他们理想的城市。他们讨论了这座城市是否会有贫民区，以及居民是否可以进入城市的其他空间，尤其是休闲区。有人指出，贫穷是巴西贫民窟表征的重要社会标志，与其有关的污名由他们的青年人吸收和复制。这些事实反映了年轻的贫民窟居民在城市中流动的可能性和非可能性，这直接影响了他们的日常生活，并限制了他们参与社会活动和获得社会生活的机会。

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational science
• Poverty areas
• Right to freedom of movement
• Cities
• Leisure activities

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the director of the Non-Governmental Organization where the research took place and the young participants of the workshops for their availability. This study is part of the first author’s PhD study, supervised by the second author. The research was developed within the Occupational Therapy Postgraduate Program, Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.

Disclosure statement

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Brazil, Finance Code 001.

Notes

1 The concept of cotidiano was adopted in occupational therapy research in the 1990s, in response to critique of the individualistic practices of the profession, specifically those that brought an instrumental and technical perspective to the understanding of life.

2 Values refer to the minimum wage and its conversion to USD in October 2019.

3 The SPI index is based on the Human Development Index (HDI) calculated by the United Nations. The index ranges on a scale from 0 to 1 (0 = lowest value; 1 = highest value). It was used to evaluate 10 four-dimensional variables in the present study: (A) Access to Basic Sanitation Dimension: (1) Percentage of households with adequate water supply service - those which have internal plumbing and are connected to the general network, (2) Percentage of households with adequate sewage service - those connected to the general network, (3) Percentage of households with adequate garbage collection service - those with direct or indirect garbage collection; (B) Housing Quality Dimension: (4) Average number of toilets per person, (C) Schooling Dimension: (5) Percentage of illiteracy in people aged >15 years, (6) Percentage of heads of household with <4 years of schooling, (7) Percentage of heads of household with ≥15 years of schooling; (D) Income Availability Dimension: (8) Average income of heads of household in minimum wages, (9) Percentage of heads of household with income ≥2 minimum wages, (10) Percentage of heads of household with income ≥10 minimum wages (Cavallieri & Lopes, 2008).

4 The Police Pacification Program aims “to restore, through military police bases located in the favelas, the control of these territories to the State, preventing their dominance by drug trafficking armed gangs” (Leite, 2012, p. 382).

5 The expressions “hill” and “asphalt” are used, especially in Rio de Janeiro, to refer to the contradictions and differences between the favelas (hills) and the rest of the city (asphalt).