SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND UNDERPRIVILEGED URBAN AREAS: MEMORIES OF MILITANTS FROM THE CERRO CORÁ FAVELA IN RIO DE JANEIRO
Keywords: social movements; underprivileged urban areas; social memory; autobiographical narrative
This study sets off from the concreteness of the social experience in the underprivileged urban territory to understand the transformations in the lives militants who took part in social struggles. We took as a starting point the current scenario of escalation of the structural crisis of capital and the dismantling of social rights for the lower social groups, in order to understand the effects of these factors on the experience of youth in a context of exclusion. Thus, based on the theoretical conventions of social psychology, we aim to investigate the changes that the social movement made in the life experience of the militants at a personal level, in their perception of the future, in the vision of themselves and of the present reality around them. Such transformations were studied through the memories of three residents of the Cerro Corá favela, in Rio de Janeiro, who got involved in the popular organization of their territory. We seek to rescue the memories of the struggle that began ten years ago with the beginning of the “Moradores em Movimento” group and with the engagement of the youth in the social movement “Levante Popular da Juventude”. Regarding the method, the research has a qualitative approach, through the interview medium, in which the answers were constructed and interpreted from an autobiographical narrative. The results cover the personal and social changes of the militants interviewed in the following aspects: new subjective perceptions of their identities and the social context; personal and community achievements through a praxis of struggle; political awareness of rights and expectations for the future.