Abstract

RIVERO HERRERA, Estrella Virna. Social representations about the "Life Project" of indigenous youth. Machacamarca and La Paz (city). Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2021, vol.44, n.2, pp.123-141.  Epub Apr 06, 2022. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v44n2.87877.

This article is the result of a year of field research (field work) and office research (documentary analysis). The general objective was to identify the social representations about the life project of indigenous youth in two towns, one in the province of Machacamarca and the other in the city of La Paz. The theoretical-methodological framework of social representations was used, from the qualitative approach, exploratory type, and a non-experimental-transversal design. The techniques used were the free association of words and the composition technique.

We carried out a comparative study between indigenous youth life projects in different educational contexts. The results show us that even though the origin of these two groups is the same (autochthonous), as well as the age (culmination of adolescence) there are significant differences in life projects. These are some variables that must be taken into account to understand the representational differences, self-esteem, educational performance of the group of young people who are studying the first year of University, they are among the most outstanding students in their provinces. The Machacamarca group has an average performance of greater self-learning towards a perspective of greater scientific discovery. The Machacamarca group is in the last year of high school (three months after graduating from high school) in their community, the other group is studying the first year of university in the city. The Machacamarca group belongs to a single community while the University group comes from several rural communities, however they have in common that both groups are Aymara-rural. The youngest group has short-term life projects (2 to 3 years), while the largest have medium-term projects (up to 7 years). Young people who have opportunities have a perspective of greater commitment to their community. In the first group, social representation is "study" and in the second group is "effort", in the latter case it is that once inserted, and seeing the reality of migration, effort overlaps all levels of decision to be able to develop.

Descriptors: autochthonous, scientific discovery, self-esteem, self-taught.

Keywords : aymaras; city; countryside; indigenous youth; life project; social representations.

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