Cartographies of Childhood at the Crossroads of Participation and Adultcentrism: An Analysis of the “Campinas Early Childhood Program (PIC)” Policy

Abstract Book of the 19th International Conference on Humanities, Psychology and Social Sciences

Year: 2026

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Cartographies of Childhood at the Crossroads of Participation and Adultcentrism: An Analysis of the “Campinas Early Childhood Program (PIC)” Policy

Alex Menezes Matsuyama

ABSTRACT:

This article examines children’s engagement in public action through an analysis of the policy framework Primeira Infância Campineira (PIC), formulated in Campinas. The study emerges from tensions between rights-based narratives and adult-centered norms shaping institutional practices. Drawing on cartography inspired by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the inquiry mobilizes academic production, media materials, and statements issued by advocacy groups concerned with younger populations. The guiding question asks how civic involvement is articulated and debated within the PIC, and which meanings are attributed to listening to younger citizens in local decision-making processes during the program’s implementation through 2025, considering adultcentrism as a structuring phenomenon. Grounded in critical childhood studies, the discussion conceives this life stage as a political category and a field of becoming that can unsettle normative rationalities while remaining subject to governmental regulation. Examination of the PIC, in dialogue with correlated initiatives, highlights achievements and constraints regarding the incorporation of youthful protagonism, particularly through the document “Children’s Plan for Campinas: enchantments, desires and needs.” The analysis interrogates measures that both confine early life within institutional formats and reveal transformative openings. Provisional findings indicate the endurance of adult-centered rationality and the predominance of participation framed as representation rather than agency. Nevertheless, flexible pathways and disruptive movements surface, challenging hegemonic assumptions and suggesting possibilities for reconfiguring intergenerational power relations.

Keywords: Adultcentrism; Cartography; Early Childhood Policy; Municipal Governance; Political Agency