Vulnerabilidade e exclusão social: uma abordagem sobre representações sociais de catadores de materiais recicláveis em Ipatinga-MG / Vulnerability and social exclusion: an approach to social representations held by recyclable materials pickers in Ipatinga, Minas Gerais State

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

Sustainability, vulnerability and social exclusion permeate discussions about the problem of solid wastes that in recent past decades have become a worldwide concern. New and old garbage, growing production volume and final destiny, selective collection, environmental education, the recycling industry diverse present discussions emphasizing, in the final analysis, a controversial question: the relationship of a society to its supposed surpluses, material surpluses and human surpluses. Inserted into this context are recyclable materials pickers, the unit of analysis for this study. In general, the study sought to identify and analyze the social representations of the recyclable materials pickers in the Municipality of Ipatinga, Vale do Aço region, Minas Gerais State, as to garbage and related matters. A qualitative approach was chosen as methodological perspective and a questionnaire, a semi-structured interviewed, direct observation and photographs were used for data collection. Data were interpreted by means of content analysis. It can be affirmed that unemployment and lack of professional qualifications were the principal reasons for insertion into solid waste recycling activities. The recyclable materials pickers routine is wearisome and involves in the majority of cases more than eight hours of work per day, requiring that at times the collection extends beyond nightfall. The collectors representations of garbage demonstrated a valuing of the term, elevating it to the status of recyclable material. The duality of work versus marginality, present in the collectors reality, oftentimes ends up being one of the great motivational forces for confronting such precarious and discriminatory work in order to survive. In their daily struggle, many collectors have a pessimistic vision of the future, being unable to envision any possible improvement or realization of dreams. Therefore, a goal is to recognize the collectors as individual possessors of rights and obligations, and principally as protagonists for actuating garbage recycling, something that society is already beginning to perceive.

ASSUNTO(S)

garbage exclusão social economia domestica recyclabe materials pickers lixo catadores de materiais recicláveis social exclusion

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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