Street-working children and adolescents in Lima: Work as an agent of socialization

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.