A representação juvenil do desenvolvimento regional : estudo de caso em Santa Cruz do Sul - RS.

Abstract

This dissertation is the result of a research developed during the Master's Program at the Graduate Program in Regional Development at the University of Santa Cruz do Sul / UNISC / RS. Its goal was to analyze how the perception of regional development, through patrimonial’s inherited of the young migrants and second generation that live in Santa Cruz do Sul (RS) may condition the self-perception of these young people as social actors of development. The transmission of the patrimonial’s inherited (collective memory) of a community is articulated with the homo situs condition and social habitus; the midsize cities become attractive poles to the spacial mobility and the socioeconomic, ethnic and cultural composition of this societies may change as the new actors of development start integrating the society. The patrimonial’s inherited can be affected when the new generations are composed, for the most part, by young migrants with no bonds with the symbolic patrimony of the society where they have gone to. The local and regional development comprises the young heirs and/or comming from the spacial mobility, through symbolic aspects related to the articulation among past, present and future at the host community. Data collection was carried out through the application of a survey (individual interview), and through the participation of forty young migrants and second generation, volunteers for the formation of five focus groups, located in five schools in Santa Cruz do Sul (RS), during the year of 2007, where we discussed the memory of local development. The schools are located in different neighborhoods and attend students from different urban social levels, with four schools from the public network and one private school. The collective interviews were transcribed, textualized and turned into writting document. The qualitative data were submitted to the analysis of the Oral History methodology, through focus group technique. The memory of development showed to be directly related to the socioeconomic and cultural situation of young people in the proportion they place themselves from the distinct spaces they occupy and transit at the urban fabric and from the notions of belonging, to narrate local development through the patrimonial’s inherited (transmitted in oral form, from the bond among generations and from the commemorative events). The young narrators are influenced by family relationships, by the issue that they just have father or mother, not both, and by the migration process. Thus, the history and memory of the young people is based on presentism, on the trajectory of this young people and indicated a "memory gap". The absence of a local and familiar generational dialogue showed difficulties in membership from young people, especially migrants because they didn’t perceive themselves as inheritors of the symbolic heritage and of the intangible heritage of the city. The speech of some of them showed the existence of a "symbolic violence", when their narratives point to a self-exclusion in relation to the welcoming society. The memory of Santa Cruz do Sul refers to the triad German colonization, tobacco industrialization and regional development. The young people’s perception about the regional development has always been marked by that memory orally transmitted at the social circle of young, but also by the media. Finally, the young people interviewed perceived themselves as actors of development when there was a "life project" linked to many possibilities of the place. Thus, this research contributes to studies on regional development in southern Brazil, as well as contributes for the prospection of comprehending the different regional realities and their implications for development, through the perception of young social actors.