Abstract

ROCHA, Maria Cristina. Youth: betting on present. Imaginario [online]. 2006, vol.12, n.12, pp. 205-223. ISSN 1413-666X.

(Youth: betting on present) Youth as a group with common features is a sociocultural construct. This concept is connected to specific realities, determined time frames, defined social relationships and cultural experiences. According to the UN, youth as an age interval embraces people ranging from 15 to 24 years old. There are 33 million young people in Brazil, a number that comprehends 20% of the population. Young people are predominantly seen as producers and victims of problems. This viewpoint conveys the adults’ insecurity on dealing with risk situations commonly associated to youth, and an unknowingness of how to avoid them. Those images are also present in the formulation of public policies addressing youth, translated into disciplinary and coercive proposals. Our contact with young people through counseling, a result of the partnership with Conselho Tutelar do Butantã, put us in close contact with those points of view and motivated us to intervene, both individually and collectively, in ways that questioned this stance and facilitated the openness to other possible social insertions for Brazilian youth.

Keywords : Youth; Public policies; Counseling.