Os lugares da infância na favela: Da brincadeira à participação

Abstract

Seeking to understand how children appropriate spaces, identify themselves and act within them, workshops were conducted with 35 children, 5 to 10 years old, living in Babilônia, a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Unlike children whose experience is more restricted to private spaces, the children of this favela went about and played outside the home, with their peers, in common spaces. In doing so, they were exposed to the problems of the place where they lived. They criticized the disturbances caused by the Morar Carioca program construction work, the poor upkeep of public spaces, the garbage, and the precariousness of the residences. Through action and play, the children transformed spaces into places they cared about, which made for a complex look at their reality, enabling them for social participation.