The Art of Not Been Governed: Street Children and Youth in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Abstract

Street frequenting children and youth in many countries in South East Asia are perceived by the State and mainstream society to be upsetting ideological constructions of citizenship, based on middle class values and to be committing a ‘transgressive act’ by violating the moral boundaries of the ideal family, school and community (Cresswell 1996). The children who work on the streets in Siem Reap, Cambodia are not conforming to the desired image of the ‘ideal child’ and their constant existence and mobility represents a menace to the success of the State, which is based on the sedentary lifestyles and the view that the family structure is irreplaceable, and the nation is modern and ‘developing’. As a result of this perceived transgression, the State and dominant groups, attempts to stigmatise, oppress and conceal undesirable children, and to limit the physical spaces in which they can operate. Drawing on James Scott’s (1990) concepts of ‘hidden’ and ‘public’ transcripts and ‘the Art of Not Being Governed’ (2010), this chapter examines how the children and youth who work on the streets of Siem Reap, are able to continue working and achieve mental and physical freedom from their psychic alienation from the State and society. An analysis of their subcultures reveals how they have been able to construct alternative identities as a form of resistance to the constraints placed on them. The subversive and geographical strategies provide a matrix within which they develop feelings of self worth, contest their marginalisation, and counteract the overload of identities attributed to them. These strategies can be recognised as political resistance and as a ‘hidden transcript’. As such they may be understood as articulated feelings of passive resistance at the way they have been consistently ignored and alienated from society and the ‘public transcript’ (Scott, 1990:119).