A Collective Experience of Active Participation in the Periphery

A Collective Experience of Active Participation in the Periphery

Brazil is in an impasse that hurt the real idea of democracy. After twelve years of left-center government, the social movements saw that each one were disarticulated, although that have provided them with some material gains, its on the other hand brought the demobilization and disarticulation between and inside them. It is in this context that the proposal of School of Citizenship Cidade Ademar and Pedreira is born.

Therefore a group of former social movement activists feel the need to seek an alternative to the leadership gap. They decided to act in the formation of new cadres supported in the space of citizen and communitarian coexistence. The formation provided a process of historical rescue that motivated in the many participants (workers, housewives, students, teachers, religious...) a desire to want to know more, to question, to problematize the lived reality and have the political will to join others in the quest for answers to the questions that have elicited all the debates, since these issues is not an aspect that should be treated with in isolation, but in a collective and communitarian way. People felt empowered, first by the learning they received. It was also noticeable the development of a higher self-esteem, by the horizontality of the relationships in all process. It was a sharing experience. The result of this “school” is that from this experience other actions in the neighborhood have emerged, like to participate in the actions of pro-housing groups, founding a Fight Committee in the region, which currently proposes specific actions on significant dates in the country, which requires reflection for the relevant political action.

This case study will be developed from interviews and narratives with the participants, and with a bibliographical research to anchor this work theoretically.