“Quando eu crescer quero ser criança”: com um mundo adulto às avessas, fazer cartografia

Abstract

Adultcentrism is an ancient practice that crosses several social constitutions, cultures and historical periods, encouraging exercises of power that treat the adult as a superior being to children (adolescents and the elderly), who must, therefore, guide and correct them. Thus, in adult-centric societies, children are subordinated, with restricted social and political participation, as well as access to goods and services. Bearing in mind the need to transform this unequal and excluding scenario, the objective of this work was to think about the effects of adult-centrism on the relationships we build among ourselves and with children. Six adults, psychology students at the time, participated in this research through 11 meetings that took place in groups and online between 2020 and 2022, mediated by the Skype device, with an average duration of 1h30min each. The choice of participants was intentional, especially to shift the focus from children as a minority group to adults as a majority group, changing the look from the margin to the center, tensioning its content. The group's function was to continue problematizing the envelope that kept adult life in a naturalized and unquestionable place, letting the adult-centric lines emerge, architecting its fight. The problematizing dynamics of the group was part of the methodological orientation of this work, a cartographic intervention-research, with schizoanalytic reading. Its function was to intervene to transform reality, therefore, the group with other adults had the intention of transforming the way in which adultcentrism was emerging for us, in order to create other narratives, change our practices. From the group meetings, it was possible to understand the relationship between adultcentrism and capitalism, with the schooling process being pointed out by the participants as a mechanism for adults to control children. It was also possible to think, collectively, about anti-adult-centric ways of conduct to combat inequalities and violence directed at children, in addition to the constitution of new ways of living, dissident from the adult-centric logic. Digital technologies were important for the weaving of the group, which branched out reaching WhatsApp and Instagram, where it extended its welcoming networks and discussion of the research theme.