Juventude e espaço urbano: cursos da vida dos jovens da periferia de baixa renda na cidade de Montes Claros-MG

Abstract

The cities are important as a place of life. And in the Brazil, the urban realities are uneven and the living conditions are not equitable in them. For a portion of its inhabitants needs scenarios as deficiencies in the public services, insufficient and poor urban infrastructure, job opportunities, culture, sport and leisure limited. The socioeconomic and spatial inequalities mark their daily lives and decrease the possibilities to enjoy the goods and existing flows in the city. In between, Brazilian youths are multiple, and it is from this plurality that they have being understood, since the young people have unique ways of being and living their youthful condition. The urban youth present themselves as social actors with different social practices experienced in the multiple places in the city and built from the social position they occupy. These are leaks and managements, this research approaches. We understand that such sociability are mediators in the use, access and consumption of the urban space for young people inserted in low-income suburbs. In this sense, this study is a qualitative-quantitative exploratory research that addresses the phenomenon referred to in the context of the Maracana Neighborhood planning area, which is considered an inserted area on the outskirts of low income city of Montes Claros, Minas Gerais State. Montes Claros is a regional center city that has goods, services and flows accessed by its population and the municipalities of its surroundings. The overall objective of the research was to analyze the trajectories, uses, access and enjoyment of the urban space for youths from 15 to 29 years. Thus, they were used in addition to the semi-structured interview, geotechnological funds for the construction of thematic maps produced from the Arc GIS version 10.1 software. With the help of this technology, we identified the age distribution, the income and visualize the equipment and urban spaces accessed by that city youth, residing in the above area. We stress that in every time and place, young people are unique and singular, with specificities and experiences built from space, time and contexts in which they live. We conclude that, the city, with its potential and limits is a right for all who live in it. In this regard, we reaffirm the importance of recognizing the uniqueness of its inhabitants, but questioning the objective conditions of the social environment in which they are inserted. The words of the young people interviewed express a life marked by shortages and urban equipment shortcomings, spaces and public services, a fact that makes vulnerable the living conditions, but also in points surprises regarding the trajectory of these actors by the city of Montes Claros. They do not have a restricted everyday just to alternatives offered in their neighborhoods, but also add in other areas of the city, both public and private, have a network of social relations at different points and enjoy their material and symbolic goods for various activities of everyday life. And the different youth groups in which they are engaged, organized around different names, they are significant as alternatives of participation that inserts them into different contexts of life in the city and enable them visibility, mobility and interaction. In the social context of vulnerability in which they live, the groups are a form of participation that has attracted them.