Under the sign of poverty
psychosocial and educational dynamics of people in economically disadvantaged social groups in the perspective of cultural semiotic psychology

The research project "Under the sign of poverty: psychosocial and educational dynamics of people in economically disadvantaged social groups in the perspective of cultural semiotic psychology" (Original title "Sob o signo da pobreza: dinâmicas psicossociais e educacionais de pessoas de camadas populares a partir da perspectiva da psicologia semiótico-cultural") has been funded by the Brazilian CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil from 2019 to 2022.

The project background and objectives

Poverty and social inequality are socioeconomic phenomena that have persisted in various contemporary societies and have been the subject of studies, mainly in the Social Sciences and Economics. This research seeks to describe and analyze the psychosocial and educational dynamics through which people from low-income strata regulate their individual trajectories in the transitions between different contexts of experience (school, university, family, and community).

Even considering the relevant contribution of sociological and economic studies on poverty to the understanding of numerous problems related to education and citizenship, this study aims to understand how people from working class backgrounds in the process of school or university education give meaning to the continuum of their experiences when crossing contexts and how they negotiate these meanings in the construction of the self under the sign of poverty. For this reason, we use the notion of "social membrane" the semiotic boundary (or semiotic border) that separates the different life contexts through which people described as poor or victims of social inequality transit. When we refer to the idea that people signify their experiences under the sign of poverty, we are dealing with the semiotic strategies and dynamics that regulate people in their individual and collective trajectories and the way they relate to the multiple voices that participate in their developmental process.

We analyze the psychosocial and educational dynamics of people from lower social classes in the transition between different sociocultural contexts in three different urban centers in Bahia. Every day, in Brazil, millions of people from low-income strata make this transition: they cross the membrane between their residence, school, university and countless urban spaces. Depending on who narrates these transitions, each context can have different meanings (a very eloquent example is to use the sign "favela" and the sign "community" or "quebrada" as synonyms for contexts of poverty). The streets demarcate the transition between the "inside" and the "outside" of each membrane. This happens, for example, with adults who are "parents" or "members" of a given community and then become "cleaners" or "dumpers" outside the boundaries of that community. In this study, therefore, precisely the crucial moments of the act of crossing membranes are analyzed, looking at the physical, symbolic, and social boundary lines of different contexts in the movement from home to school or university, crossing urban spaces.

What happens to the psychological experience of these people when they cross the membrane as they go from their residence in the urban periphery to university or school? What are the consequences of these border transitions? How is one side of the border signified in relation to the other side? How does being on one side produce own narratives about oneself and one's life projects? What are the consequences of identity definitions for access to public welfare and the construction of life projects? We believe that these questions can be answered by observing the crossing of social membranes and registering the signs produced by these people.

The relevance of this study lies in its scientific and social aspects. Regarding the former, the knowledge produced may broaden the understanding of the theme of poverty, since most studies that address the trajectories of people from low-income strata focus on the strictly economic dimension. Regarding the social relevance, based on the analysis of the participants' narratives, it is possible to reflect on elements that constitute these trajectories and that, once known, may encourage policies, programs, and projects in the scope of institutions focused on the promotion of citizenship and social equality.

The theoretical foundation is based on the conceptual assumptions of Semiotic-Cultural Psychology that allow a microgenetic look at the subjective meanings elaborated by the research participants. Regarding the methodological design, a qualitative and idiographic research is proposed. The research participants are adolescents and young people in the process of schooling, as well as local residents belonging to the lower social classes, of both sexes, who live in poverty and reside in the municipalities of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Observations are made in several urban spaces where people move around, narrative interviews and, in a second moment, narrative and semi-structured interviews to elucidate possible gaps, as well as collaborative maps and focus groups. A complementary aspect of this research is the establishment of a direct interlocution with researchers who deal with transitions in poverty contexts in sociocultural horizons very different from the Brazilian reality, such as in India, Denmark, Italy, and China. This does not mean that it is a comparative study. We understand that academic research, by its very nature, should benefit from critical interlocution among researchers. We think, in the same way, that the internationalization process should not be only a formal strategy, but the establishment of effective cooperation actions with foreign researchers, exchanging experiences and information, in the discussion about procedures, conceptual and methodological tools, hypotheses, and results. Therefore, we foresee the creation, in the process of conducting this research, of an interlocution with researchers who are already conducting research on psychosocial and educational dynamics from the perspective of Semiotic-Cultural Psychology.

Project publications

1. do Espirito Santo Freire, K., Dazzani, M.V., Marsico, G. (forthcoming). The construction of meaning through the semiosis and the experiential self. In: T. Tsuchimoto & J. Valsiner (Eds), The semiotic field of the garden: Personal culture and collective culture.

2. Silva Filho W. J. Dazzani, M.V., Marsico, G., (forthcoming). The University, The Public Intellectual, and The Art of Conversation. In L.-M. Geberth and L.T. Woller (Eds). University in the 21st century, InfoAge Publishing.

3. Silva Filho, W., Dazzani M. V, Tateo L., Marsico G., (forthcoming). He knows, she doesn’t: epistemic unequality in a developmental perspective. Review of General Psychology.

4. Gomes, C. R., Dazzani, M. M. V., Marsico, G. (forthcoming). Psicologia dialógica: inovações a partir da noção bakhtiana da exotopia/Dialogic psychology: innovations from the Bakhtian notion of exotopia, Memorandum.

5. Tateo, L., Marsico, G., Min, H., & Machado Dazzani, M. V. (2022). University without borders. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 56(4), 893-901.

6. Tateo, L. (2022). The voice of hungry minds: the relevance of Danilo Dolci for the Cultural Psychology of Education. Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 39.

7. Tateo, L., & Marsico, G. (2022). 11 Sensing the city. edited by Susan Petrilli, Meng Ji, Intersemiotic Perspectives on Emotions: Translating across Signs, Bodies and Values. Routeldge

8. de Abreu, M. N., Tateo, L., & Marsico, G. (2022). The affective logic of race: A cultural psychological analysis of racial signifying practices. Culture & Psychology, 28(1), 23-42.

9. César, J., & Tateo, L. (2022). The sign of dialogue between psychoanalysis and cultural psychology. International Journal of Psychoanalysis and Education: Subject, 2(1), 1-14.

10. Galvão, A., Marsico, G. (2021). Time-Space of the Youth from the Periphery: An Analysis from the Cultural Psychology Perspective, Trends in Psychology, doi: 10.1007/s43076-021-00117-8;

11. Español, A., Marsico, G., (2021). Psychology of Borders: An Integral Proposal to Understand the Border Phenomena in Human Life, Theory & Psychology, 31(5), 665-674 doi:10.1177/09593543211026756;

12. Janunzi, J., Sá, A.L., Marsico, G. (2021). What can culture teach us about the concept of a subject? Ongoing debate on ethics in developmental psychology research. Human Arenas, doi: 10.1007/s42087-021-00239-6;

13. Tateo, L., & Marsico, G. (2021). Signs as borders and borders as signs. Theory & Psychology, 31(5), 708-728.

14. Pinheiro, M. A., Silva, J. F. D., & Tateo, L. (2020). The Aesthetic Experience as a Central Pathway in Understanding Memory and Imagination–The Case of Quilombo Barro Branco. In Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future (pp. 89-106). Springer, Cham.

15. Dazzani, M. V. M.; Silva Filho, W. J. (2022). Inquiry in psychology. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science , v. 56, p. 1-10.

16. Marsico, G., Dazzani M.V. (2022). Cultural Psychology of Education: Approaches and strategies. Integrative Psychological and Behavioural Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-022-09707-2

17. Marsico, G., Dazzani, M.V. (2022). Cultural Psychology of Education, Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 39, e220003, https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-0275202239220003e

18. Teixeira, Adrielle De Matos Borges ; Dazzani, Maria Virginia Machado (2022) . The Emergence of the Decolonial Self: a Racialized Perspective of a Black University Student?s Development. Human Arenas, v. 5, p. 1-14..

19. Teixeira, A. M. B.; Jacinto, P. M. S. ; Dazzani, M. V. M. (Eds).(2022). O futuro é meu enquanto eu viver: desafios da psicologia em contextos educacionais. 1. ed. Salvador: Edufba. v. 1. 288p.

20. Dazzani, M. V. M.; Jacinto, P. M. S. ; Teixeira, A. M. B. (2022). Apresentação. In Adrielle de Matos Borges Teixeira, Pablo Mateus dos Santos Jacinto, Maria Virginia Machado Dazzani. (Eds). O futuro é meu enquanto eu viver: desafios da psicologia em contextos educacionais. 1ed.Salvador: Edufba, v. 1, p. 7-1

21. Jacinto, P. M. S. ; Oliveira, E. A. ; Dazzani, M. V. M. (2022). Abrigamento de crianças e adolescentes e Psicologia Escolar e Educacional: um diálogo possível. In: Adrielle de Matos Borges Teixeira, Pablo Mateus dos Santos Jacinto, Maria Virginia Machado Dazzani, Organizadores. (Eds.). O futuro é meu enquanto eu viver: desafios da psicologia em contextos educacionais. 1ed.Salvador: Edufba, v. 1, p. 111-132.

22. Teixeira, A. M. B. ; Dazzani, M. V. M. (2022) . Modos de subjetivação da negritude no contexto universitário: entre o branqueamento e a emancipação. In: Adrielle de Matos Borges Teixeira, Pablo Mateus dos Santos Jacinto, Maria Virginia Machado Dazzani. (Eds.). O futuro é meu enquanto eu viver: desafios da psicologia em contextos educacionais. 1ed.Salvador: Edufba, v. 1, p. 249-278.

23. Nascimento, V. G. ; Querino, N. A. V. ; Dazzani, M. V. M. ; Teixeira, A. B. G. ; Silva, M. P. S. (2022) . O acompanhamento terapêutico escolar:(re)invenções da prática no contexto da pandemia da Covid-19. In: Bezerra, Henrique Jorge Simões; Correia, Mônica de Fátima Batista (Eds.). Psicologia na Escola em Tempos de Pandemia: Práticas e Reflexões. 1ed.Porto Alegre: Editora Fi,, v. 1, p. 125-144.

24. Nascimento, V. G. ; Querino, N. A. V. ; Pinheiro, A. B. ; Silva, C. A.; Dazzani, M. V. M. (2022). Espaço de acolhimento “entre nós”: intervenções possíveis com atores escolares no contexto da pandemia da Covid-19. In: Bezerra, Henrique Jorge Simões; Correia, Mônica de Fátima Batista (Orgs.). Psicologia na Escola em Tempos de Pandemia: práticas e reflexões. 1ed.Porto Alegre: Editora Fi,, v. 1, p. 175-192.

25. do Espirito Santo Freire, K., Souza Pereira, A., Dazzani, M.V., Marsico, G. (forthcoming). Contributions of Semiotic Cultural Psychology to Interventions in Clinical Psychology. In J. Jacobi & A. Namdiero-Walsh (Eds), Cultural Psychology in Clinical Research and Practice. InfoAge Publishing.

26. Sá, A L.; Dias, C.; de Lemos, Y.; Dazzani, M.V.M.; Marsico, G; Tateo, L. (submited). Caminhos Metodológicos na Pesquisa em Psicologia: da “Neutralidade” à Construção de Vínculo. Paidéia.