Public education policies: what young Brazilian social activists think?

Abstract

This paper reviews the rich period of Brazilian political life between 2011 and 2014 in order to discover the demands and perceptions of young militants regarding their rights, especially those related to education, which have been incorporated into the youth public policies and the Statute of Youth. The objective is to analyze how the building of an institutional and legal field has worked as a mobilization tool for young people in the general fight for the expansion of their rights. Thus, it is possible to contemplate complex relationships between militant and non-militant youth present in the slogan "No Right to Less!” which was echoed in the demonstrations of 2013, and was the product of a whole generation of young political activists. The final conclusion is that the listening process of organized youth is an important contribution to the debate, especially by expanding themes and bring to light new legal subjects that arose in the recent cycle of public policies for youth in the country, which seems to end in 2016 with the rupture that occurred in the Federal Government and the consequent extinction of numerous programs and policies that were ensuring, albeit timidly, the expansion of young Brazilians’ rights.