Desde sua emergência no cenário público nacional no início do século passado até os dias de hoje, as camadas populares1 têm mostrado formas de participação política distintas que acompanham as transformações econômicas, sociais e políticas por que passa o país ao longo desse período. Embora as péssimas condições de vida que experimentavam os primeiros operários no começo do século 20 tivessem projetado na cena pública os trabalhadores das nascentes indústrias, o reconhecimento das camadas populares como um novo ator político, entre outros já existentes, se dá apenas no início da década de 30, marcado por dois eventos - um em âmbito mundial e outro de caráter local - que irão promover as áreas urbanas, em detrimento das áreas rurais, como o local que sintetiza as condições econômicas e políticas do conjunto do país naquela época. Com efeito, a crise de 29 - que põe fim à primazia dos interesses agrários vinculados à economia de exportação do café - e a revolução de 30 - que abala a supremacia das oligarquias rurais na sociedade brasileira - dão livre curso às mudanças sociais e econômicas associadas ao desenvolvimento industrial, levando à necessidade de incorporação das camadas populares ao processo político.

Since its emergence on the national political scene at the beginning of the last century, the working class has had different forms of political participation that have accompanied the economic, social and political transformations which the country has undergone during this period. If, immediately after the 1930 revolution until the mid-60s, the presence of the working class on the political scene was tied to the State which, to gain legitimacy, had to incorporate it into the political process as a new actor whose demands had to be recognized, in the 1970s and the 1980s, this same social class challenged the State, which had imposed a new discipline on social life, bringing to collective life the individual experiences of private life, arising from urban privations. Nowadays, in view of the relative obscurity of the working classes in national affairs - when compared with the two previously mentioned periods - one can infer that the crisis afflicting collective mobilization is very much a reflection of the absence of participation of these social classes. In a survey carried out in a municipal public school, located in a working class district in the town of Itaguaí/RJ, an attempt was made to assess forms of participation - in the guise of fragmented participation - which, recovering the meaning of social actions for the actors themselves, seeks to show the scope of collective participation for reconstructing the meaning of such actions. This stems from the fact that the meaning that people, as individuals, confer on what they do, remains as a clear link between routine daily life and times of mobilization and struggle, between particular needs and collective needs.