A vivência de trabalho infantil de crianças, adolescentes e seus familiares em regiões rurais: significados, self e intergeracionalidade

Abstract

Child labor has become a relevant social issue for states and civil society since industrialization in the 19th century. In the case of Brazil, contextual differences between city and countryside have shown that there are discrepancies in relation to child labor carried out in an urban context compared to a rural context. The general goal of this research was to understand the meanings of child labor constructed by working children and adolescents and their families, and how these children and adolescents' self positions emerge from their experiences as precocious workers. From this general objective, specific objectives were: I. to analyze the meanings of child labor that parents built, considering their own experiences as child workers and the experience of early work of their daughters and granddaughter; II. to analyze the meanings of work constructed by working children and adolescents; III. to analyze the children and adolescents positions of the self which emerge from their experiences as child workers; and IV. to analyze the articulations between positions in the self and the meanings constructed by working children and adolescents. In addition to these specific objectives, the study sought to answer the following research questions: a) how did the early insertion into work occur for the two generations of the families participating in the research?; b) what are the similarities and differences identified when analyzing the early insertion of the two generations of families into work?; c) what were the sociopsychological components that contributed to the early insertion in the work of the members of the researched families?; d) what are the work activities carried out by working children and adolescents with their family and/or their community?. The research was based on Semiotic Cultural Psychology, having meaning and the dialogic self as key concepts. To achieve these objectives, a study of multiple cases was carried out, with a qualitative approach and longitudinal design, using the technique of conversation and observation and the use of a sociodemographic questionnaire. Participants were members of three families of rural workers and two key informants, all living in the rural area of a city in the interior of the state of Bahia, Brazil. The main results point to a positive attribution to work, seen as a component that contributes to education in the countryside. The identified meanings express points such as the formation of moral values through work, and the survival of the countryside culture passed between generations through learning ways of rural work, which contributes to the maintenance of an intergenerational cycle of early insertion in work among families. Some recommendations are suggested at the end, such as the greater inclusion of children in future studies, and the need for a perspective that discusses child labor beyond a matter of income. It is understood that beliefs about the dignity of work or its function as a way of avoiding involvement with criminal practices are also the basis for the decision of families and children and adolescents themselves to work.