Capital social e participação política: a experiência de empoderamento cidadão de egressos da rede de associações do PRECE/CE

Abstract

The following research is part of the work that seeks to analyze the relationship between social capital and political participation. In this context, our object of study are the student associations of the Cooperative Cell Education Program (PRECE). Our objective is to analyze the PRECE as a space of educational and political socialization and its possible influence in the citizen empowerment of the actors who participated in this experience. We start from the hypothesis that the stock of social capital generated in the PRECE raised the level of citizen empowerment and the emancipatory social capital potential of the graduates of the experience, positively influencing their levels of political participation. Through its methodology of cooperative and supportive learning, the PRECE educational movement made it possible, above all in the region of the Middle Curu region, for more than 500 students of popular origin to join university education. From the internalization of generalized norms of cooperation, trust and reciprocity, students share their knowledge in small groups (cells) and, after entering university, return to their communities on weekends to collaborate in the development of projects in the areas of education, social control and governance, and social communication. Starting from the premise of PRECE as an active manifestation of social capital, we evaluated the extent to which it participated in the experience of the PRECE had a positive influence on the behavior of these individuals in terms of greater political participation. As for the methodological aspect, we started with a quanti-qualitative approach. In the collection of the data we use as instruments of analysis: structured questionnaire, focus groups, interviews with movement leaders and documentary analysis. We presume that the educative process of citizen empowerment based on the experience of the PRECE and the formation of a new modality of social capital that measures the potential of emancipation enabled the students to become aware of the problems faced in their communities and to engage in the search for collective solutions. In this sense, participation in horizontal and voluntary associations aimed at common objectives has produced social rules, norms of cooperation, trust and reciprocity among its members, generating positive predispositions regarding the political efficacy of each citizen.