Doctoral Dissertation Research: Suppressed Voices, Transitional Lives, Childrens Strategies Negotiating Neoliberal Globalization in Peru.

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Despite studies showing that women and children tend to bear the brunt of structural adjustment policies modifying a nations economy, when international, national and even local policies are made, they are often decided without considering the ways in which such policies will concretely affect resources and opportunities available for young people. Under the direction of Victoria Lawson, doctoral student Dena Aufseeser will explore the effect of economic restructuring and international children's rights regimes on working children in Lima and Cusco Peru. The research will attempt to answer the questions 1) In what ways do Peruvian welfare policy and programs aimed at economically disadvantaged children reflect international children's rights and free-market ideologies? 2) What strategies do economically disadvantaged children use to negotiate these changes? and 3) In what ways do children's lived experiences differ from how they are constructed and portrayed by policy, government officials, and care workers? Informational interviews with government officials, program staff, NGO directors and police officers, along with analysis of relevant child welfare policy, will provide data on available services and opportunities, requisites to utilize such services, and the ways in which adults invoke children's rights. Extended interviews and participant observation with 15 street children in Lima and 15 street children in Cusco will provide data on children's livelihood strategies and responses to social and economic change, exploring topics related to work, education, and interaction with service-providers. Data will then be compared to examine gaps and disconnects in the ways in which adults construct and portray childhood and the ways children describe and frame their own experiences. The methodology recognizes children as social actors, providing spaces for their participation, rather than just providing glimpses into changing social indicators. The findings will indicate how economically vulnerable children respond to structural constraints in creative ways, as well as explore the ways in which free-market ideology and international children's rights complement and contradict each other in the context of child welfare policy in Peru. The investigators expect to demonstrate that children's actual experiences of social and economic change differ significantly from government officials? and policy makers? Claims and portrayals of child poverty, as children's rights continue to be defined by adults, and are selectively applied. This research looks at how global ideas relating to free-market ideologies and international children's rights are reworked in specific contexts. It analyzes the ways in which working children in Lima and Cusco respond to, and negotiate, economic and social changes. An understanding of children's livelihood strategies and views of their future will contribute to strengthening policy regarding child labor and education, as well as overall national development within Perú. In particular, by raising awareness of some of the limitations of current indicators used to measure poverty, this work will contribute to better policy analysis, and in turn, better policies to address issues related to child poverty. It may also impact the literature on international development and children's geographies by considering the ways in which children utilize public spaces as places of work and living. Because child poverty is an issue all countries face, increased communication and awareness of the ways in which both youth and governments respond to such problems can facilitate collaboration to make a concerted effort to improve children's opportunities for future success everywhere. This project is jointly supported by the NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences Program and the Americas Program of the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.