Criança_corpo_cidade: olhares para a experiência infantil na cidade de Maceió-AL

Abstract

This master's thesis aims to investigate the relationship between children and urban space to reflect the importance of their presence and participation in the city. In the face of the contemporary way of life, in which the private space is most appreciated, and children are increasingly being confined at home, schools, and consumption spaces, their presence in public spaces is shown as a subversive practice to the city that attempts to segregate, restrict, and delimits. In this way, the central argument of this study is based on the idea that children, through their playful, transgressive, and creative behaviors of experiencing spaces and life, may indicate a possibility for other ways of inhabiting cities. The research has a theoretical and historical approach with concepts, projects, and urban policies that have been shaping the child-city relationship, mainly in the Brazilian context. It also experiments with some research methods with children. Therefore, some activities were carried out with a group of children living in the city of Maceió-AL to understand their issues and perceptions about the urban environment. The children have shared aspects of their social context and how they feel about their experiences in the city. The study reveals that children’s participation and presence in the public space, besides being a right, are conditions for the construction of collective relationships, the awareness of their social responsibility, and the commitment to the urban transformation.