The Center for Regional Studies (CER) of the Andrés Bello Catholic University, Guayana Extension, celebrated the III edition of the International Seminar for Welfare and Territorial Inequalities, an academic space that brought together researchers from Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Spain, to reflect on child and youth well -being in local contexts from a Latin American perspective.
The day began with the intervention of Mariam Ojeda, coordinator of the CER Children’s Welfare Research Line, who presented a socio -educational diagnosis on childhoods in Venezuela.
“Childhood has ceased to be seen as a homogeneous category; today we understand that there are multiple childhoods, each with specific needs according to its territorial context,” he said.
The researcher also shared worrying data from 2023 in the country, noting that 86% of the population is in poverty. He also stressed that mass migration has generated “a childhood left behind,” distrustful family structures.
In the educational field, he stressed that 61% of adolescents between 14 and 17 are at risk of school abandonment or outside the system, while 54% of schools have precarious physical conditions.
Social Justice and Child Vulnerability: A qualitative approach
Graciela Tonon, director of the Social Science Research Center of the University of Palermo, Argentina, presented an investigation on how to overcome inequality and vulnerability in children. In his presentation he urged to see children as protagonists, stating that “it is necessary to listen and respect them, leaving aside the traditional definitions that only considered the opinions of adults.”
The presentation highlighted the need to incorporate participatory methodologies in social research, which allow to make visible children’s voices in the design of public policies. He also stressed that vulnerability should not be understood solely as material lack, but as a relational condition that is expressed in multiple dimensions: affective, symbolic, institutional.
Welfare in migrant Latin American adolescents
The researcher Gisela Carrillo, a doctor in social psychology at the University of Barcelona in Spain, presented a presentation on Latin American migrant adolescents in Spain, exploring how they build their well -being in contexts marked by discrimination and institutional exclusion.
His intersectional approach allowed analyzing how gender, class, ethnicity and immigration status are intersecting in the youth experience. Carrillo identified three key strategies in the youth agency: transnational comparison (between the country of origin and reception), the resignification of migrant identity and the creation of peer support networks.
“Young migrants not only adapt, they also transform their environments,” he concluded. The presentation stressed the importance of recognizing adolescents as political subjects, capable of influencing their communities and disputing hegemonic discourses on migration and youth.
Subjective inequality in school contexts: Youth narratives in Mexico
Alejandra de la Torre Díaz, researcher at the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Mexico, presented an ethnographic study conducted in Mexican secondary schools, focused on how adolescents experience inequality in their daily lives.
His research revealed that the school, far from being a neutral space, can become a scenario of symbolic exclusion, where social stigmas, class discrimination and differentiation mechanisms between students are reproduced.
“The school can be lived as a protective space, but also as an exclusion scenario,” he explained.
The rapporteur showed how teenagers develop strategies to resist these forms of exclusion, from humor to the resignification of their identity. The presentation stated that school well -being cannot be measured solely by academic indicators, but must consider subjective experiences, interpersonal relationships and the sense of belonging.
Well -being at school from a social justice perspective
Lorena Ramírez-Casas del Valle, psychologist and doctor in psychology of the Catholic University of Valparaíso, Chile, shared her work on well-being in school contexts. The researcher explained that, in Chile, the school is an area with low levels of well -being for students. “Life in school is not the same for a student who has a good performance or the one who has some special condition,” he said.
According to Ramírez-Casas, an approach to positive psychology that “focuses much more on developing certain personal skills has predominated in her country, but without looking at what are the conditions that the school has to favor or hinder the well-being of students.”
Through qualitative studies he explored how students perceive well -being inside and outside the classroom, and how the dynamics of meritocracy and segregation influence their school experience.
Commitment to childhood
The seminar ended with the call to deepen the study of child and youth welfare, especially in a context of constant social changes and challenges. (With UCAB Guayana communications information)
