Cultural actions and youths in M’Boi Mirim region: debating public policies and local vulnerabilities

Abstract

This article aims to describe and analyse cultural actions carried out by young people (18-29 years old) living in M’Boi Mirim. This region integrates a district council in the south zone in the municipality of São Paulo that has approximately 600.000 inhabitants and different kinds of material, social and institutional vulnerabilities. In order to achieve our goal, we have participated in cultural activities, observed and registered the ways by which young people organized these events, interviewed and talked with people linked to these actions in formal or informal facilities. As a result, we came to know cultural actions that denounce, reflect, contest and respond to local challenges. We concluded that these actions show the potential of culture as a strategic axis for the confrontation of local vulnerabilities due to young people mobilization, articulation and empowerment and its possibility to strengthening the relations between cultural actions and public policies.