Children and adolescents experiencing homelessness - times, setbacks, and confluences in the processes of (dis)enchantment of childhoods

Abstract Social issues related to children and adolescents experiencing homelessness and the vulnerability processes that impact their lives-violating social rights, impeding the construction of their histories, and denying the possibility of a future, as well as a past and ancestry-are themes addressed in this essay. The aim was to deepen theoretical reflections by engaging with contributions from the Sociology of Childhood, considering the intersection between racism, adult-centrism, and capitalism. The problematization of the generational marker in colonial legacy points to a fragile process of universalizing children’s rights and demonstrates the insufficiency of legal provisions when social inequalities emerge, which contributes to the production of unequal childhoods. Regarding boys, girls, and non-binary children experiencing homelessness, and in contrast to a vision that renders them socially unviable and criminalizes their ways of life, this essay highlights the ethical-political aspects of the impact of their bodies-becoming-children in the territories, affirming the potential of the connection between play and subalternized cultures in their gingante and resistant ways of being. Considering the unprecedented possibilities that urgently need to be collectively envisioned and forged, this study advocates for the re-signification of vulnerable childhoods to ensure space and time for their existence as Subjects.