Cultural, art education or socio-educational projects, whose target audiences are poor black youth, have attracted increasing attention in Brazil's media and social imaginary. The media is enthusiastic about them because they preach social peace, but they are criticized in smaller, more politicized circles. This article presents an analytical description of these projects as a social phenomenon, seeking to avoid this polarization while maintaining a critical eye. Because this initial analysis is still fairly superficial, we turn to the work of Stuart Hall, who wrote on similar issues of youth, imaginaries and violence in British culture, in search of a "more scientific" method of investigation. The article then presents considerations about Stuart Hall's investigative method, which he adapts from Marx, and uses it to raise more incisive questions about the social significance of such projects at this time.
art education projects; research method; Stuart Hall