Violência e processos de significação: um estudo com adolescentes em situação de rua

Abstract

This research sought to understand the meaning processes of homeless adolescents about violence. An approach of a qualitative nature, of the interpretative type, was used, having as a theoretical reference the Semiotic Cultural Psychology and as participants five adolescents living on the streets, aged between 16 and 19 years old, who were living or working irregularly on the streets of Feira de Santana-Ba. The construction and production of data comprised the mapping of the institutions that work with the referred population, the access to geographical and social territories of greater vulnerability (traffic lights, road, fair and public squares) and the application of four instruments and/or techniques of data collection (sociodemographic questionnaire, vignetting technique, semi-structured interview and field diary). The data were transcribed, organized and analyzed, through a broad reading, with the aim of seeking meanings and aiming to define forms of categorization and/or subcategorization of information. In this thesis, the implications of semiotic constructions of adolescents in the conduction of violent behavior and/or in its avoidance are highlighted. The retraction of violent behavior emerged in the face of signs loaded with social, religious and affective representations. Paternal violence and family conflicts are related to the semiotic processes of going to the streets and committing infractions, while work on the street exposed processes of internalization and externalization of values related to moral behavior and distancing from infractions. In addition, the participants' narratives pointed to processes of defamiliarization, lack of social protection and depoliticization, and signs from collective culture such as "aggression" and "people's bad hearts" were associated with forms of physical, psychological, social and institutional violence and other signs from personal culture such as “Attention to people's characteristics” and “Acting Politely” were presented as useful forms of protection, affective, emotional and behavioral regulation in the cycle of relationships in the street world.