Beyond Discourse and Competence: Science and Subjugated Knowledge in Street Children Studies

Abstract

This article argues that street children studies (SCS) has reduced its central concept to a discursive construct, and the young street people themselves to capable 'agents'. One consequence is that street children are not recognized as distinct intergenerational groupings in society. The traditional history of SCS as saga of science elides its positionality as activist critique. This dominant paradigm emerges as overarching belief structure and storytelling tradition, in which the presentation of correct and useful science is crucial. Taking the activist critique as a variant of post-development theory, this article traces different forms of discursive determinism, deconstructionism and populism. Using an iconic text as test case, the article reviews in detail the deconstructionist and populist arguments regarding the complexities, politics and images of street children. Opportunities to think sociologically are identified throughout. Discursive determinism relates to the narrow focus on childhood; intergenerational approaches help to go beyond discourse and competence.Cet article a pour but de montrer que les études sur les enfants des rues ont réduit leur concept de base à une construction discursive, et les jeunes de la rue eux-mêmes à des « agents » actifs. Il en résulte entre autres que les enfants des rues ne sont pas reconnus comme des groupes intergénérationnels distincts dans la société. L'histoire traditionnelle des études sur les enfants des rues, en tant que saga des sciences, élide son positionnement de critique activiste. Ce paradigme dominant apparaît comme une structure fondamentale de croyance et une tradition narrative dans lesquelles il est essentiel que soit présentée une science correcte et utile. En s'appuyant sur la critique activiste, comprise comme une variante de la théorie du postdéveloppe-ment, cet article décrit différentes formes de déterminisme discursif, de déconstructivisme et de populisme. Il part du cas-type d'un texte emblématique pour examiner en détail les arguments déconstructivistes et populistes concernant les complexités, les politiques et les images liées aux enfants des rues. Des pistes d'analyse sociologique sont identifizées tout au long du travail. Le déterminisme discursif est lié à l'attention portée exclusivement à l'enfance; les approches intergénérationnelles permettent de dépasser le discours et la compétence.[I]t is really against the effects of power of a discourse that is considered to be scientific that the genealogy must wage its struggle. (Foucault, 1980, p. 84) Looking at the past in order to comprehend the present, this article sketches a genealogy of knowledge about street children. Olivier de Sardan's (2005) meta-theory helps to identify methodological and ideological variants of deconstructionism and populism. What is considered to be scientific discourse about street children, I argue, affirms the tenets of the currently dominant paradigm, namely, that street children are constructed in discourse and that they are competent agents. This leads to ...

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Bringing the street back in: Considering strategy, contingency and relative good fortune in street children’s access to paid work in Accra

“…Once its existence in discourse has been secured in this way then street children can be made to disappear from view. In an important intervention, Gigengack (2014, p. 267) identifies how the ‘discursive determinism’ that underpins sociological critique permits both the dissolution of street children as a coherent social category and then their rehabilitation as capable social agents. Justification for the former manoeuvre is found in the social constructionism of the ‘new’ sociology of childhood and its rejection of the child as a universal category of human existence.…”

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