From “criminal” to “worker”

a study on the relationship of young people with work from socio-educational measure

Abstract

The article presents the results of a research performed with young people who committed infractions in the city of Belo Horizonte (MG). Entering the theme related to the professionalization axis proposed by social-educational measure, this study aimed to understand the meaning the work assumes for young people, considering their previous experience in informal – and often illicit – work and their new experience with the proposed activities in the context of the measures. From this guiding axis, we try to better understand the social categorizations of formal “workers” and “criminals”, considering the changes that have occurred since the formation of the young person and their insertion in the world of formal work. Data were collected through collective and individual interviews, and the latter allowed the elaboration of two case studies chosen to be exposed in this article as a way of illustrating the new perspectives discovered by the young people from their insertion in a social-educational project. The results allowed to reveal the meanings attributed to the work category in the periods before and after the caution, revealing that the subjects tend to consider work only the licit activities they have practiced.