Paper short abstract:

Based on preliminary results from an ongoing international research project, the paper analyzes how young Brazilians living in urban vulnerable communities participate in the development of community-based strategies and intergenerational practices to adapt in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

Brazil is a continental country, strongly pervaded by class, race, and gender inequality. Vulnerable young people in urban poor settlements are one of the social groups who suffer the most from this historical intersectionality of exclusion. The multiple crises installed with the pandemic of Covid-19 emerged in unequal conditions of risk, protection, and care in all dimensions of life, which affects young people living in urban vulnerable communities.

This paper is based on preliminary results from an ongoing international research project, conducted by researchers from the University of São Paulo, the University of Birmingham, and the University of the Free State. We seek to overlook the complex challenge of these multiple crises provided in vulnerable young people’s lives from a nexus approach in order to understand their intertwined participation in adaptation strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic, mainly on the scarce access to food, education, and play/leisure.

We analyzed some interviews with Brazilian NGOs, social movements, and public agents, and sought to capture the process of community-based social learning in intergenerational practices that generated positive changes in communities in São Paulo. The results revealed the centrality of the challenge of food insecurity for families in the early months, followed by mental health issues among youth in later years. To ensure the survival of the communities, the relevance of networking combining multiple levels of agency with internal and external actors, the use of social media to raise funds and disseminate information, and the dimension of care work and self-care were highlighted.