Social inequality, youth and emancipation -

challenges and possibilities

Abstract

The deepening of social inequalities is associated with the capitalist model of exploitation, expropriation and accumulation of wealth, as scientific literature has extensively demonstrated. In countries like Brazil, whose history is marked by the colonization process, social inequalities act in the (re)production and perpetuation of oppression, marginalization and suppression of rights, configuring what is understood by some authors as coloniality. Based on this focus, this study proposes a reflection on some of the effects of social inequalities on the lives of young Brazilians, analyzing some of the main challenges encountered by this population in their processes of formation, social insertion and emancipation, in light of the current reality. Among the studies consulted for this discussion, we resorted to theorizations of Therborn (2010), Quijano (2005, 2007), and Fanon (2022), proposing an articulation between social inequality and the different modes of domination; we sought, in Socio-Historical Psychology (Bock; 2004, 2022), and in authors such as Leon (2005), and Freitas (2005), among others, elements to understand the youth category; and we draw on the perspective of Freire (1967, 1991) and Fanon (2022) on human emancipation. We emphasize that the complexity of the barriers faced by young people in the search for their emancipation requires overcoming social structures of oppression, injustice and inequalities.