Children and transmission lines in São Luís: Methodological perspectives of a research on children's representations

Abstract

This article revisits the research carried out on the presence of communities in easement transmission line strips of Eletronorte in São Luís, to think over methodological perspectives in researches on children’s representations. Although children had not been considered on the initial project – which aimed to analyze the representations and relationships that rural communities of São Luís establish with Eletronorte’s equipment –, we were surprised by the children’s protagonist role. Therefore, considering children in the field has become fundamental to fully reach the research objectives, which is the discussion carried out in this article. In addition to a methodological analysis, we verified children’s representations of the equipment, the company and the easement strips, and we identified children’s actions based on these representations through techniques like informal conversations and drawings made by the children, thus composing an ethnography. Therefore, although the investigation is not defined as a research with or on children specifically, through this analytical approach, we demonstrated the importance of taking children as research subjects as any other field variable – men, women, elderly – otherwise, we do not fully understand a reality.