Learning from risk: an ethnography of a risky play

Abstract

This text discusses the relationship between risk and learning in the practice of the rolling cart, based on an ethnography carried out in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte between 2019 and 2022. The community involved in the activity is characterized by disputes and interests about this practice. Although it is considered risky, different narratives about the risks of this practice emerge in an urban and contemporary context. The analysis presented argues that risk is a social construction, in line with Jean Lave's theories of situated learning and Tim Ingold's ecological approach. According to these theories, the skills necessary to practice rolling cart are developed through a process of education of attention, and not through mental representations that are converted into body movements. Thus, men, women, adults and children participate, constitute and are constituted by the practice, which is polysemic and situated. The theories of Giddens and Douglas are also relevant to the discussion, as they suggest the social construction of risk and the importance of the cultural and social context in which this practice is carried out. In short, the analysis emphasizes the complexity of the relationship between risk and learning in rolling cart practice and the importance of considering the ecological approach to understand the dynamics of this community of practice.