Tu sabes que somos de calle

Abstract

Drawing from eleven months of ethnographic fieldwork, this article examines the distinctive interplay between the urban landscape, children living on the street, and outreach organizations in the downtown area of Lima, Peru. Outreach organizations, discourses surrounding children on the street, and research play a significant role in shaping the streetscape, and in the creation and maintenance of a street child identity. Merging Soja’s theory of Thirdsapce with theories of identity development and performance, I examine the lives of adolescents on the street and the spaces in which children explore, adopt, and develop an attachment to street life and a street child identity.