A política como espetáculo da juventude: lutas estudantis em Fortaleza

Abstract

This study has the object of investigating the university student movement, seeking to identify the characteristics of this youth praxis from the hypothesis that rituals, symbols, discourses, public demonstrations, and electoral disputes express not only the dynamics of this social movement but also constitute a propaganda strategy and a reproduction of it. In order to do so, the analysis of the discourse produced by the boards of students in their print materials was employed. The concept of youth was approached from the perspective of various authors. The Globalization phenomenon and its consequences to political action were taken into account to contextualize the student militancy in the 1990s. It is pertinent to say that the student movement is a type of youth organization, which is distinguished by its ideological dimension and political exercise. Although the rituals that characterize the movement still remain, the public demonstrations are in transformation, in accordance with the demands of the historical moment. Actions aimed at recruiting militants and maintaining the hegemony in the boards of students were observed. However, the leaders deny adopting such strategies. For the militants, in the past and in the present, despite the recurrence of the “crisis” discourse, the student movement is a fertile territory to cultivate the utopia of social change and its “reinventions”.