ADORATION AND ENCHANTMENT IN PUBLIC YOUTH POLICIES

Abstract

Focusing on two emotions, this paper reflects on how they impact the planning and execution of actions that aim to generate benefits for young people. The work is based, on the one hand, on a conceptual review of the notion of public policies by / for / with young people and on the presentation of a social science approach to emotions; on the other hand, the discussion of two mystical emotions, adoration and enchantment, is recovered, on which it is discussed how they affect some public youth policies in Brazil. The paper presents a broad pragmatist conception of what constitutes “public policy”, with this try to demonstrate how actions encompassed in the concepts of “youth protagonism” and “association with young people” are filled with adoration and enchantment and contribute – even if unintentionally – to transferring to young people themselves responsibilities that are the responsibility of different sectors of society and the State, according to the brazilian Federal Constitution.