Childhood Figurations and Processes of Social Inequality in Brazil

The investigation of infancy in society is one of the most demanding and complex of tasks and may be explained by a long-term figurational, relational and historical process approach as suggested by Norbert Elias´s theories. This chapter explains the figurational processes of childhood in Brazil discussing the conditions of inequality of generations of children in their relationship to adults, social rights and citizenship. We discuss, within Elias´s social and historical perspective, several social figurations in which individuals produce representations on childhood and social inequalities of childhood in Brazil. Familial, school and labour figurations are analysed. The empirical basis of this analysis is made up of pictures available at the 2016 Art Exposition, called History of Childhoods, in the Arts Museum of São Paulo (MASP).