ABSTRACT
The role of children in the significance and function of public spaces in Brazilian cities is an important issue, considering the large social inequalities in the country. In public spaces, children should share experiences of solidarity, and learn about the world, but how possible is this in Brazilian cities? In this context, we look critically at established scientific knowledge. As a product of modernity, scientific knowledge resulted in technical advances, but also in unequal power and social inequity and the suppression of other ways of narrating the world. Different knowledge produced by different people and cultures often becomes invisible. In public spaces, where such knowledge is (or should be) visible, one can recognize both possible dialogues and conflicts in the plurality of multicultural knowledges beyond official regulation and scientific knowledge. We can identify emancipatory possibilities produced in public spaces, which retain the sense of recognition of and belonging to place.
