Words and Images of Contemporary Youth Friendship

ABSTRACT How the ways friendship ties are established can be thought nowadays? How to advance the discussion of the topic of friendship given its importance in the social and political space? In order to debate those issues, twelve meetings were held with 122 students in the seventh and eighth grades from South Brazilian public schools. The present research takes Michel Foucault’s hermeneutics as its theoretical framework, as well as his studies of ethics and aesthetics. In terms of research findings we highlight the strength of familiar discourse and the contribution of gender dynamics to youth friendship ties. The internet has proved to be of paramount importance to these youngsters, bringing consistent data to investigate how youth friendship relations are being configured nowadays.