Between the language of public policy and the language of rights: understanding modes of subjectivation in the experience of representatives of social movements in the articulation of public actions in vulnerable areas of the city of São Carlos, SP

• Grant number: 23/15029-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2024
• End date: September 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Social Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Mário Henrique da Mata Martins
• Grantee: Mário Henrique da Mata Martins
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/17413-0 - Mapping public actions in vulnerable areas in São Carlos municipality, BP.TT

Abstract

In the Brazilian constitutional process, the focus on the struggle for rights has surpassed the establishment of a basic declaration of fundamental rights for the population and has advanced towards establishing that the relationship between the State and society would itself be based on rights. However, the languages of rights and public policy operate in distinct ways: while one is imperative, the latter is based on negotiations, possibilities, and political processes. Consequently, this has generated a conflict between those fighting for rights and those operationalizing such policies in the country, which demonstrates the need to broaden the focus of studies on public policies to the study of public action in general, encompassing both public social policies and other actions carried out by various arrangements of social actors in the demand for rights. In this field, social movements emerge as relevant actors, not due to a supposed centrality in these political games, but due to the recognition that these collectives operate as networks of articulation. In these networks, they interact with different actors seeking to promote their interests through institutional innovations and by combining creative strategies of confrontation and cooperation, both within and outside institutions. Simultaneously, the actions that social movements articulate are guided by an appropriation by their members of the ways of acting, thinking, and desiring promoted by the movement, as well as by expectations regarding their flags and proposals, which demonstrates their significant role in the production of modes of subjectivation. For this reason, the present proposal aims to understand the modes of subjectivation that are produced in the articulation of public actions by social movements through the conflict between the language of public policies and the language of rights in vulnerable areas of the municipality of São Carlos. The focus on these areas was chosen due to the social debt that the city owes to the vulnerable population groups inhabiting it. To achieve this, participant observations and interviews will be conducted with at least 10 individuals participating in social movements. The analysis will be guided by a theoretical framework that integrates the pentagonal model of public action analysis and the dimensions of Foucauldian processes of subjectivation. It is expected that the research can provide new perspectives on how participation in social movements and engagement in vulnerable areas for the articulation of public actions influence processes of subjectivation. (AU)