Youth participation as an individuation and socialization experience: Rebuilding identity

This research examined how participatory experience allows young people to understand and build intersection points between their individuality and the collectivity. A qualitative case study has been performed on groups of young members of a Brazilian NGO involved with education for citizenship and community work for socially vulnerable youths. The following instruments were used: in-depth interviews, participative observation, a field diary and documentary research on the institution's blog. The participatory process stands for a moment of significant immersion in their social context. In this movement, young people confront negative feelings related to the stigmas of poverty and violence of their communities. The development of critical analysis mirrors the awakening of sensibility in the civic engagement in community actions. Within them they highlight the unveiling of a reference to collectivity, which, through cooperation, reciprocity and respect, alters their sense of individualism. Individuation is not only of the narcissistic type, such as that originating from consumption values, but it is made greater by means of connections between the I and the We, which become the discourse matrix used by young people to shape their identity. Thus, social and emotional bonds are triggered from the perception that personal achievements underlie everyday political struggles. The narratives converge in the solidarity incorporated as a value that guides the formation of a responsibility ethics through the multiplication of knowledge in educational projects and collective actions on youth groups connected to community associations, schools and community health centers. Such new social relationships are created as youths see themselves in common projects and collective interests. The meaning of participatory experience is twofold: both as individuation and socialization processes.