Street Children and the Excluded Class

Abstract

Traditionally, the study of street children has proceeded by locating these kids in social categories such as the poor, the destitute, the vulnerable population or the population at risk. Other scholarly traditions have advanced the view that street children belong with the socially excluded groups. However, both approaches treat these children as if their life experiences are not linked to the general class structure and the State. The argument I advance in this article is that an improved understanding of street children’s everyday existence is to include them in a social class, namely: the socially excluded class. I argue that the class and exclusion paradigms are well suited to one another insofar as some excluded persons participate in the division of labor. The proposed approach leads us to focus upon a set of empirical dimensions related to the lives of street children: their commonality of experience, their exploitation of social capital as a means for survival, their participation in the division of labor, their relational experience and the nature of the collective action they engage in to defend their interests. I conclude by arguing that this approach constitutes a comprehensive analytical framework that allows us to better organize and obtain knowledge concerning the social life of street children.