The Emancipatory Potential of Income Transfer and Political Participation in Contexts of Poverty and Violence

Autonomy and emancipation express the idea that individuals or social groups can choose for themselves how they want to conduct their lives. Both are at the root of central modern conceptions like subject, freedom, self-determination among others. Generally they, and especially their lack, are also part of the studies about democracy and citizenship, when they are qualified as protected, regulated, restricted etc. Autonomy and emancipation are also central in two important thematic complexes: social policies, especially the direct (cash) transfer of income, as well as political participation policies. Sometimes they are taken as a presupposition; in other cases they function as a goal to be achieved; they also can play as a regulative idea that, even distant, guides the social mobilization. Despite being present in public policies, as fighting flags of social movements and in social theories, there are a lack of studies that connect systematically these ideas. The paper analyzes the emancipatory potential of political participation and of direct transfer of income from the perspective of the biographical narrative of women. It will be analyzed in the political and economic perspective (associative involvement, job and income opportunities, access to policies and citizenship rights); it will also be analyzed in the perspective of private, interpersonal relations (possibility to create and realize the own life project, recognition vs. disrespect in family relations, community life). The research field is the Morro da Cruz, in Porto Alegre. This neighborhood has a long history of organization and political participation, and the region also has a high number of families awarded with direct income transfer, especially Bolsa Família. But it is also the scenario of very different forms of violence. The research will be theoretical oriented on the Critical Theory, especially the conception of radical democracy (Habermas) and recognition (Honneth).