O desafio de vir a ser: jovens universitários, moradias coletivas e identidades

Abstract

This dissertation analyses the process of identity construction between young students from the Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro who share residences (repúblicas universitárias). I seek to understand how relationships with different actors are taken as references to the construction of their self images. The departure from the parental house and the constitution of new social network, the change in the family relationships and the progressive legitimation of a relative autonomy, are taken as paths to the comprehension of the individualities construction. Entering university means to these young people a considerable diversification of experiences, as well as the expansion of the ir field of action, where collective house maintenance, contact with different people, and the departure from parents creates new and differentiated demands of positioning. The research method involved a network selection as a main focus to the realization of an intensive field work, together with semi-structured interviews with ten students from nine different collective houses, or repúblicas universitárias. Trying to comprehend the ritual of trote as an important element to these young people´s insertion into this new reality, I followed a group of veterinarian medicine students during the reception of new students. Calouros and veteranos - freshmen and older students - are part of a complex process of identity construction, reconstruction and legitimation. From different points of view multiply identities used by these students are described and analyzed in their different contests ambiences of actuation: university and republicas as sociability groups capable of, in different situations, to provide this young students of a belonging feeling and self -representations, tools to their identities construction.