The Argentine young people and their social representation of politics: different positions according to the educational level of their parents.

DANIELA BRUNO; ALICIA BARREIRO; JOSÉ ANTONIO CASTORINA

Évora

Conferencia; 11th International Conference on Social Representations. III Colóquio Luso-Brasileiro sobre Saúde, Educação e Representações Sociais. V Fórum Internacional de Saúde, Envelhecimento e Representações Sociais.; 2012

Universidade de Évora

The outstanding political activity carried out by the Argentine young people in the 70´s during the dictatorships was repressed with brutality. The economic and social crisis that Argentina experienced in 2001 resulted in demonstrations and neighborhood assemblies which show a resurgence of political participation. By contrast, other studies indicate that young people reject political parties. Such studies are focused mostly on the young people low political participation and apathy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the social representations Argentine teenagers have as regards politics. The sample was intentionally composed of students (sample=229) between 17 and 18 years old residing in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The method of association of words was applied using the word politics as the inductive term. According to the results, the central core of the social representation of politics would consist of: corruption, lying, money and unfair. Likewise, when considering the variable educational level of parents, the associations to the term politics are organized around two factors. On the one hand, participants whose parents have attended primary school mostly associate politics with the following terms: agreement, greed, convenience, decisions, disorder, dissension, diversity, deception, indifference and deal. On the other hand, the factor which encompasses those individuals whose parents have attended secondary school and the university associate politics with the following terms: democracy, disagreement, election, people, unfair and freedom. The results obtained show that although young people share common meanings associated with a negative perception of politics, they have different positions according to the educational level of their parents. Such different positions would point out the existence of peripheral elements around that central core.