Street-Working Children and Adolescents in Lima

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of children's work as part of their socialization process. Ethnographic material was collected in Lima (Peru) with street-working girls and boys as well as their parents. The text examines three questions: the diverse concepts of work, family and childhood; adult representations and norms that they pass on or aim to transmit to children through work; and the child's point of view regarding his or her work and the way in which it evolves with time, which is described in terms of `career'. It is argued that children and parents' views and practices regarding work and socialization give a contextualized definition of children's interests and thus represent a complementary examination to approaches that focus on exploitation.