Brazil, a social system in the face of chaos:

unequal political socialization of Brazilian students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

What was the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the emergent power structure of the Brazilian social system? The pandemic caused social isolation for two years. Inequality became evident during this period. Brazil presents high levels of wealth concentration, students of different classes receive unequal education, and political authorities do not face such dilemmas. Thus, the crisis may have affected the socialization of young people for politics. Social systems theory says society is an interdependent whole with interpenetrating functions: education, economics and politics. Systems thinking is used to analyze survey data (2015-2022) about politics which was answered by clusters of young students in public and private high schools. The hypothesis is that the pandemic deepened the concentration of power in the capitalist society. Evidence is found of an expanding political alienation that is suffered by students from subaltern groups as a result of unequal access to quality education.

Keywords: systems theory, socialization, politics, inequality, pandemic