Playing the ‘pibe chorro’ game: masculine skills and legitimate peripheral participation in street culture

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

ABSTRACT In this article, I analyse the street learning that a group of boys in a poor neighbourhood in Argentina produce when they play at being ‘pibes chorros’. Through the observation of interviews, photos and audio recordings made in the neighbourhood since 2010, I show how these games are occasions for boys to learn to pretend they know how to steal and to recreate a masculine image of toughness in order to cope with both street life and local working life. In this way, street culture, which in other studies is often seen as a constraint on available educational opportunities, in this article is a central place for learning by legitimate peripheral participation to occur (Lave and Wenger [1991]. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). The masculine acquisitions and skills of street play allow these boys greater preparation and participation social for life in highly formal spaces such as oil, the police and the local state.