The present article focuses on the processes of political experience of young militants from the outskirts of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It attempts to understand associative life as a process of individualization of political actors. This study is grounded in the assumption that these actors have the opportunity to make use of past and present elements as they build up their own political repertoire. Although this article holds discussions with other works which approach militancy emphasizing the processes of political socialization, its analysys is centered around analytical subjectivity. The reflections presented here have been based on a multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in residens’ Associations over the three years material. It has been allowed to say by its analysis that young militants select, appropriate or reject some political elements of the past from their own social experiences in the political field. Thus, without rebutting or submit entirely to the legacies of past, young militants recreate their own politics and relationships in this new social settings.
Youth; Politics; Generational relations; Subjectivity