Children, Youth and Environments Vol 13, No.1 (Spring 2003) ISSN 1546-2250 Introduction: Homes, Places and Spaces in the Construction of Street Children and Street Youth Judith Ennew Centre for Family Research University of Cambridge Jill Swart-Kruger Department of Anthropology University of South Africa Citation: Ennew, Judith and Jill Swart-Kruger. “Introduction: Homes, Places and Spaces in the Construction of Street Children and Street Youth.” Children, Youth and Environments 13(1), Spring 2003. Street children and street youth have been the focus of intense academic interest and welfare concern for over two decades, resulting in what has been called "a prodigious outpouring of texts" (Rizzini 1996, 226). Thus it is not surprising that the papers in this special issue reflect and, in many cases refer to, a "paradigm shift" that has occurred during this period. Both the academic and field report sections in this issue demonstrate that this shift has taken place at both theoretical and practical levels. In the academic sphere, the discourse on street children has been transformed by considering the elements of time and space, as well as theories that individuals are active agents in the construction of social reality. At the level of practice, in policy and the design of programs, a major influence has been the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which establishes children as subjects of rights and active agents (van Beers 2003; O'Kane 2003; Panter-Brick 2003; and Shanahan 2003, among others in this issue). Paradigms always shift unevenly, this case in several spheres. The global recognition of a “street children problem,” which began by relying on Latin American models, has become broader. Definitions, such as the frequently used (and often misused) UNICEF distinction between children "on" and "of" the street, have been altered in view of new information. Modes of practice have been challenged by insights and experiences from other continents. Thus it is both interesting and useful that this issue contains information from Azerbaijan, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan and Zambia, as well as global considerations. There are now fewer attempts to describe a "typical street child" although such constructions do exist and are frequently 82 replicated with a seemingly ruthless rhetoric in the media (Rosemberg and Andrade 1999). As Ebigbo's account of child density studies in different Nigerian cities shows, it is not possible to refer meaningfully to "the Nigerian Street Child," much less to "the African Street Child" (Ebigbo 2003, this issue; Ennew 2003, this issue). One factor underlines this with particular emphasis: although attention previously focused almost exclusively on boys working and living on the street, street girls are now an increasing subject of study and concern (Rurevo and Bourdillon 2003, this issue; Hansson 2003, this issue). Explanatory frameworks have also become more sophisticated than earlier assumptions (and teleological research based on assumptions) that street children are either "throwaways" or "runaways" because of poverty and family breakdown. Such conjectures stigmatize impoverished families, blaming them for collapsing under the stress of undefined "poverty," and fail to grasp that most poor families do not break down, nor do they inevitably abandon or discard their children. As made clear with respect to child labor in a recent report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), three levels of causal analysis must be taken into account: immediate, underlying and structural (ILO 2002). At the immediate level, the reason why a child may leave home and go to work or live on the streets could be a sudden drop in family income; loss of support from an adult family member due to illness, death or abandonment; or an episode of domestic violence. Underlying causes could be chronic impoverishment; cultural expectations, such as the idea that a boy should go to work on the streets as soon as he is able; desire for consumer goods; or the "lure of bright city lights." Structural causes consist of factors such as development shocks, structural adjustment, regional inequalities and social exclusion. Current multi-level approaches to causality are underpinned by a greater understanding of childhood, which incorporates both its constructed nature and the understanding that it is experienced in different ways...
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Mar 1, 2010
Ethel Leonor Noia Maciel + 5
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