<b>Experiências de consumo de crianças de diferentes contextos socioeconômicos retratadas em desenhos<\b>

Abstract

The high expectations of consumer society have been criticized for stimulating overconsumption and potentially reaching children in families with no purchasing power. This qualitative study focuses on consumption experiences of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Two second-grade classes were selected, one of a public and another of a private school, which were believed to represent contexts of lower and higher income, respectively. Children were suggested to draw “cool” and “bad” consumption experiences and asked to talk about the drawings. Analysis of the collected material showed that: private school children drew on the satisfaction of buying products and services from different industries, as well as the dissatisfaction of standing in queues and having purchase orders denied by parents; the public school children portrayed positive experience of shopping in grocery store, basically, while bad situations were linked to purchase orders denied by parents and the dissatisfaction of having to buy them cigarettes and alcohol, as well as situations in which children encountered some sort of violence. Drawings revealed differences regarding the influence of market mechanisms and spaces available to stimulate consumption.