Young People in the "street network": work trajectories, get by and entrepreneurship

• Grant number: 24/19617-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Aline Suelen Pires
• Grantee: João Pedro Ferreira Perin
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Amid processes of flexibilization of labor relations and contracts, precarization, and platformization, along with the production of an entrepreneurial culture that legitimizes ways of being and living in the contemporary world, young people from the working classes trace their trajectories in a context of unstable and low-paying jobs. This context reflects a set of agencies and occupations that make up what is called get by, characterized by activities with low social protection and fragile or informal labor ties. Building on my master's research, which advanced and expanded the notion of the street network and the relationship between the ethics of get by and the entrepreneurial ethos, this project aims to analyze how peripheral young workers, who are part of the street network, experience and navigate different forms of entry into the Brazilian labor market in the face of recent transformations, including precarization, flexibilization, and platformization. It also seeks to understand the meanings these young people attribute to their practices throughout their life and work trajectories, considering the possible assimilation and reinterpretation of the entrepreneurial discourse. The study will focus on young workers from the working classes who are part of a network formed by various labor interactions, identified in the vicinity of Praça da República, in downtown São Paulo-SP. Floating observations will be conducted through an ethnographic approach, along with in-depth interviews, to develop a study grounded in the trajectories of these workers. (AU)