The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze different adolescence contexts in Salvador: a public school, a social project (NGO) and a socio-educational center for adolescents, in conflict with the law, as far as (a) participation possibilities, (b) inclusion mechanisms offered/constructed and (c) the position taken/assumed by the adolescents in the different contexts. Each context was analyzed as signification nets where processes of co-construction meanings were taking place, while each subject took different positioning. The coordinator and the educators were interviewed and focal groups were organized with 7 to 16 adolescents. The three contexts were described metaphorically as continent net, hollow net, imprisoning net and pointed to different ways of participation and social insertion, among the adolescents. The permeability of the contexts was taken as a mediation category to social inclusion-exclusion. The research points out to the youths demands for social and political participation, enlarging their possibilities of social insertion, considering the differences and iniquities of this group.
Youth; social inclusion; nets