The children of Bento Rodrigues affected by the Fundão dam collapse: a decolonial perspective

Abstract

The research used decolonial theory as a theoretical framework to understand plural and subalternized perspectives, since decoloniality proposes a rupture against the hegemony of power and defends dialogue with diversity and the plurality of knowledge. It starts from the recognition of children as social agents and people with rights, holders of autonomy, who reflect and remake their own conditions, that is, they are capable of self-governance, of making decisions about themselves, without suffering external impositions. Thus, the objective of this article revolves around verifying whether the children of Bento Rodrigues, a subdistrict of Mariana (MG) affected by the Fundão tailings dam collapse, are able to exercise their autonomies in the process of repairing damages, observed from the coloniality of power, a condition that persists in the Theory of Capacities.  It is argued that this understanding is supported by the colonial desires of categorization and universalization of concepts that prevent the children of Bento Rodrigues from exercising their autonomy, excluded from social participation throughout the process of repairing damages from the Fundão dam. This is a legal-sociological research, with the aim of understanding the relationship between the social fact based on children's understandings and the legal phenomenon dependent on society's perceptions and product of the mining development model. The sources used were exclusively bibliographic, explored in a qualitative and exploratory way, based on the publications of the newspaper A Sirene and the website Mariana: Território Atingido, of children's reports, their perceptions about before and after the Fundão dam failure and the damage repair process.