Since the second half of the 20th century in Latin America and the Caribbean, youth have been configured as a distinct actor in the political and public arena, despite which the social inequalities that affect children and young people have not been reduced, consolidating the historical naturalization of the multiple forms of violence against them.

Children and young people have been stigmatized and misinterpreted as subjects lacking agency in the case of the former, and criminalized and victims of youthicide and a gradual genocide in the case of the latter. Cultural and political hegemonies, and the multiple forms of violence stemming from them, have violated their dignity, exacerbated their discrimination and exclusion, and have manifested in diverse ways throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Within this social reality, hegemonic narratives regarding childhood and youth, and their socializing agents, have been constructed, legitimized, and reproduced from the perspective of rights violations, which generally positions them as passive. These narratives have disregarded the experiences, knowledge, needs, and expectations of social actors considered dependent and immature: children, as well as those considered dangerous, apathetic, and rebellious: young people.

In general, the presence of violence has led to the silencing of children's and young people's voices, either for their own protection or for the protection of their loved ones. This has resulted in the forgetting of their lived experiences—their bodies, their voices, their ways of being and expressing themselves. Truth has been considered a single, monolithic truth, and it is not perceived as present in those children and young people deemed dependent, immature, or dangerous. Consequently, their memories have been sidelined in the history of our continent.

In this sense, the research axis “Childhoods and youth: hegemonies, violence and cultural and political practices of resistance and re-existence” which is part of the Working Group, proposes to make these realities visible through a contribution to the Observatory of childhoods and youth, with an emphasis on the issues of hegemonies, violence, and political and cultural practices of resistance and re-existence, such as the communication narratives of the children and youth themselves, memory exercises, aesthetic and affective expressions, inclusive citizenship exercises, political socialization and peacebuilding.

On the other hand, after several decades in which the existence of an apparent apathy among young people towards politics was proclaimed, the 21st century finds us with a renewed process of their visibility, driven by a wide spectrum of causes, groups, and modes of participation. In the Latin American case, this acquires particular relevance in light of the cycles linked to progressive governments which, although with substantial differences between countries, lead to a reconceptualization of the State and the management of youth public policies by

various mobilized groups, to the point of beginning to be seen as areas to be contested or in relation to which to contribute to the construction of militant causes.

This, in turn, invites us to rethink the role of the State and the different ways in which young people, in general, and activists, in particular, are connected. A situated understanding of how public affairs are managed is an essential aspect of studying a range of positions that extend from support for to challenge institutional politics, which, far from being interpreted as apathy, can be seen as part of a struggle over the legitimate meanings of what politics is and how it is conducted (both within and outside the State).

In relation to the latter, the research focus of this Working Group, “Collective Action, New Militant Causes, State, and Public Policies,” is interested in exploring the emergence of debates and modes of socio-state production concerning youth and childhood in light of progressive management models, as well as the emergence of the so-called new right in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are interested in understanding the contemporary Latin American and Caribbean scenario in light of the emergence and persistence of public policy management paradigms (Rodríguez, 2018), as well as the mechanisms of production and reproduction of inequalities through youth and childhood programs and policies, and through state actions not formalized as policies, but with equally significant effects.

Finally, Latin America and the Caribbean continue to exhibit social inequalities that are not solely related to income levels and that affect populations in particularly critical conditions. This is particularly evident in the situation of women—whose living standards are improving, but to a lesser extent than men—young people—who are improving less than adults—and various ethnic groups (indigenous and Afro-descendant or Black people, in particular) (UNDP, 2010; ECLAC, 2014; Vommaro, 2016). The studies reviewed continue to reveal a complex and worrying set of paradoxes and contrasts, along with a profound social unrest, evident in the emergence of youth movements that, until recently, remained largely invisible in the public sphere. In recent years, these movements have occupied streets and squares to fight for diverse issues, not always considered specifically youth-related, such as the powerful feminist mobilizations, for women's rights like the right to abortion and against gender-based violence, and for free, democratic, and quality public education. (Valdivieso, M. 2016).

Within this framework, the axis "Social inequalities and generational approach" aims to contribute to understanding the multiple social inequalities in relation to the human rights of children and young people.

The overall purpose of the proposed GT would be to contribute critical Latin American and Caribbean knowledge about their childhoods and youth, within the framework of new social processes that reposition Latin America and the Caribbean in dialogue with the global agenda.

The current conditions in which most children and young people live in Latin America and the Caribbean constitute the main starting point for continuing the task of producing knowledge that attempts to account for their reality. The Working Group on Childhoods and Youth: Hegemonies, Violence, Inequalities, and Mobilizations proposes readings, analyses, and transformations of the described context from perspectives that alternate between diversification and specialization. These perspectives demonstrate, in conceptual and theoretical terms, the systematic study of children and young people as social, cultural, historical, and political subjects. In fact, the dual dynamic of diversification and theoretical specialization presupposes and implies its expansion and deepening, as an expression of the growing complexity inherent in social dynamics.

In this sense, the Working Group adopts critical positions rooted in the Global South, contributing to the promotion of decolonial, counter-hegemonic practices, mobilization, and the reduction of inequalities. It focuses on processes situated within the Latin American and Caribbean context, which must engage in dialogue with knowledge developed in other regions and historical periods. These critical approaches aimed at transformation involve research processes that examine both the Latin American and Caribbean context and the relationships of subordination of children and youth to adults from a generational perspective.

The GT articulates its theoretical horizons in 3 central topics around children and young people, which have a great relationship and articulation with each other: hegemonies, violence and cultural and political practices of resistance and re-existence; social inequalities and generational approach; and collective action, new militant causes, State and public policies.

Regarding hegemonies and violence, the Group focuses on actions that contribute to transformative processes in pedagogical practice from the perspectives of critical pedagogies and popular education; that contribute to transformative psychosocial processes from the perspective of Latin American social psychology; that contribute to relational and social transformations from the perspectives of political socialization and alternative perspectives on human development; as well as that contribute to counter-hegemonic practices from the perspectives of culture and communication. It adopts a rights-based perspective, from which it proposes a critical analysis of public policies, and of violence and social mobility as forms of criminalizing children and young people, through actions undertaken by, among other entities, the penal system. It is important to incorporate gender, generational, ethnic-racial, and class perspectives, and to recognize that violence and the ways in which subjectivities and identities are constructed in children and young people are differentiated. Additionally, we propose approaches based on generative, dialogical, narrative, and collaborative approaches that consider critical social psychology or social constructionism (thought in a situated way and from a clear ethical and political positioning), critical theories of communication and culture with openness to aesthetic perspectives, and philosophy for children and young people.

Secondly, inequality is conceived as a concept that allows us to reflect on relational processes, especially in two senses. On the one hand, there are those instances where youth groups emphasize the right to difference or account for when difference becomes inequality and seems to legitimize it. On the other hand, there are the generational dynamics of the production and reproduction of inequalities and the construction of equalities of difference. We believe these are two of the most significant aspects of current processes of social change in the region, with generational inflections (Vommaro, 2017). Furthermore, by delving deeper into the study of social inequalities from generational intersections and others related to gender, migration, ethnicity, culture, education, labor, territory, and other factors, we could affirm that they are multidimensional.

Finally, regarding collective action and new militant causes, in just over two decades, the field of youth political participation has shifted toward specific areas of study (youth collective action, forms of organization and mobilization, youth militancy and activism) that have been configured not so much as extensions of the classical approaches to these categories but as theoretical productions with a specific conceptual status, as a result of a broader and deeper understanding of the youth condition and its sociocultural and political differences. The State, society, politics, the economy, and culture, at their various scales, insofar as they are problematized from the practices of what society designates as youth, are inevitably the object of research with a recognizable framework of conceptual autonomy and, therefore, considered from such conditions and perspectives. In this challenge, the situated explanation of inequalities and multiple processes of struggle, resistance, and victories undertaken by new generations means developing theory and constructing understandings from which to contribute to the transformation of society. It is precisely the rigorous treatment of the central concepts of the field of political participation seen from the perspective and in relation to the organizational practices of children and young people in their various forms that will allow us to produce a more refined and situated knowledge about what is happening on the continent as Latin America.

We believe that the theoretical bets described include a starting point, in relation to the dialogues that are proposed as part of the GT, it will be in the development of the work itself in the next period in which we will be able to derive expansions to the discussion of the proposed topics.