Abstract
Children in street situations are characterised by a high spatial mobility and the short duration of their social relationships, which can be intense or superficial. Alternation of numerous and changing personal partnerships reproduce the relatively diffuse nature of social roles under conditions of survival. Hence, the divide between of public and private spheres, a product of modern industrialised societies, does not suit to the living conditions of the marginalised social classes from which CSS come. Instead of a hierarchical, strongly-organised gang which maintains stability over time, what seems to exist is rather networks, near-groups and dyads, but it does not rule out the existence of more integrated groups. The intensity of membership varies depending on the street careers of CSS. Life on the street is violent, and violence produces victims. Different victimization and emancipation processes are analysed, along with the ethics of the street, as there is no reason to claim that CSS are lacking moral sense.
This chapter is translated from Lucchini, R. (1993). Le lien social et la sociabilité dans la rue, in: Riccardo Lucchini. Enfant de la rue. Identité, sociabilité, drogue (pp. 75–105). Genève/Paris: Droz. It is translated and published in English with permission.
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Notes
- 1.
The only data we have on the whereabouts of CSS at night are the nocturnal tallies of children sleeping on the streets in the centre of some Brazilian cities. These tallies are unreliable and only allow for a rough estimate of the children present on public thoroughfares at a given time of the night.
- 2.
However, when a network member has to perform a specific task (purchasing drugs, stealing, looking for food, scouting for a safe place, hunting for information, contacting a police officer, etc.), his role becomes consistent and precisely delimitated.
- 3.
See notion of “shifting membership” (Yablonsky 1979).
- 4.
See Yablonsky (1979).
- 5.
“Moleque”.
- 6.
“Pegava”.
- 7.
“A gente tem um papo forte.”
- 8.
In the network made up of children who use inhalants, namely shoemaker’s glue, the identitary aspect should not be underestimated.
- 9.
‘De vez em quando’.
- 10.
‘Um montào de gente’.
- 11.
Every child on Praça Carioca knows the perpetrator of this murder. The versions they tell vary in the way the teenager was killed (stoned to death or attacked an iron bar) as well as in who was the perpetrator or perpetrators of this deed.
- 12.
Pedro has been on the street since he was around seven or eight years old, but he went home for short periods of time many times. He lost contact with his mother, who left the family neighbourhood without leaving an address. Social workers found one of Pedro’s sisters who was prepared to take him in, but he refuses to leave the street. He does not want to be far from the city centre where he made a home. He hangs out with a group of cheira cola. It is not the group from Praça Carioca, but it does not keep him from hanging out with them as well. Pedro’s case is a good example of the mobility that allows children to be part of several groups at the same time.
- 13.
Let us underline that he also threatened a social worker with an iron bar.
- 14.
‘Arrumar dinheiro’.
- 15.
This latter version is the most probable. Indeed, his powerful personality and his mastery in capoeira seem to give Paulo great authority over the other children. As for the second leader, he is Paulo’s childhood friend.
- 16.
Jorge Amado’s novel ‘Captains of the Sands’ (2013) tells the story of a gang of street children which is highly organised and hierarchical. They occupied an abandoned warehouse near the port of Salvador in Bahia and made it their territory. It is from this territory that gang members go to the city streets, moving by dyads or triads. Now, this territory is the essential ground without which the children would not have been able to form a gang. Moreover, these children no longer have parents or relatives. They, therefore, cannot go home, and the gang is truly built as a functional replacement for family. This is, however, never a topic of discussion when the children in our study group talk about the network they belong to. Thus, the absence of parents or adults of reference, as well as the absence of a territory, stimulate the creation of networks rather than gangs.
- 17.
‘Manda fazer serviço’.
- 18.
Introducing newcomers to the street, or protecting them from attacks, are common illustrations of such obligations.
- 19.
‘Entào eu vou usar eles’.
- 20.
‘Olho grande’.
- 21.
‘Camarào que dorme muito, a onda leva.’
- 22.
Stealing blankets from those sleeping on the street is a common occurrence among street children.
- 23.
‘Cara de bobo.’
- 24.
‘A gente botava ele pra ser o mais fraco.’
- 25.
‘A gente ficava com aquele mais fraco.’
- 26.
‘A gente via que dava pra ele, a gente botava ele também. Quando via que nào dava, a gente ia.’
- 27.
‘Nào era menor, mas era mais fraco. Entào a gente aproveitava.’
- 28.
‘Brigar’.
- 29.
For Erving Goffman (1974), ‘face’ corresponds to the identity an individual thinks they can legitimately claim.
- 30.
‘Aproximaçào.’
- 31.
“Nos também nào maltratava ele toda ora.”
- 32.
Paulo: ‘Jogava logo uma proteçào pra ele ficar teleguidado pela gente.’
- 33.
‘Botamos ele pra nossa parte.’
- 34.
‘E arrumamos autro fraco pra gente se aproveitar.’
- 35.
‘Sempre tinha um fraco.’
- 36.
‘O papel du fraco é cheirar e ficar doidào.’
- 37.
Benno Glauser (1990) also observed an example of victim sexual abuse in Asunción. The abusers were accusing the victim of enjoying homosexual relations. We do not have at our disposal any systematic study of the sexuality of CSS. Some Brazilian publications report a high homosexuality rate among these children. However, we think it is more accurate to talk about temporary or periodic bisexuality rather than confirmed homosexuality.
- 38.
‘Brigar’
- 39.
We will not consider here the case of the victims who emancipate themselves by receiving the ‘clemency’ of the group.
- 40.
‘Papo’
- 41.
‘Companheiros.’
- 42.
‘Confio, mas nào deposito confiança em ninguém.’
- 43.
‘Se eu for confiar, confio mais nos menorzinhos.’
- 44.
‘Sofredor.’
- 45.
‘Folgada.’
- 46.
‘Só quando era folgada e passava junto da gente com medo e segurava a bolsa, aí a gente tomava mesmo.’
- 47.
‘Esse pivete vai querer me roubar.’
- 48.
‘Sai de perto da gente.’
- 49.
‘Olhou prá minha cara assim.’
- 50.
‘Se eu tivesse muito apertado precisando de dinheiro.’
- 51.
‘Experimenta só um dia só.’
- 52.
‘Cada um tem a sua cabeça.’
- 53.
‘Nào é legal.’
- 54.
‘E, ia ser o caso.’
- 55.
Caillois , op. cit., p. 39.
- 56.
Caillois distinguishes four principles within the game, among which are ‘paidia’ and ‘ludus’ (p. 48). ‘Paidia’ concerns, among other things, a principle of amusement and free improvisation; he ‘embraces the spontaneous demonstrations of the play instinct’ (p. 76). This last characteristic only partially applies to theft simulation. ‘Ludus’ concerns the ‘taste for gratuitous difficulty’ (p. 75) and to ‘a growing need to follow gratuitous conventions’ (p. 48). ‘Ludus’ is also calculation and combination. This principle creates an obvious problem: in order to have conventions, you need a partner. But in simulation and theft, the ‘partner’ is not playing! On the other hand, these two situations are only partially playful. All this shows why they are only partially related to Caillois’ model.
- 57.
To our knowledge, there was at least one event of a leader being executed by other children for having abused his power, through mistreatment and the repeated confiscation of inhalants for his own use. The execution of a second child, for similar reasons, also seems to have happened before the beginning of our study.
- 58.
Literally, ‘remains dirty in the turf’.
- 59.
‘Esperto’ (deft).
- 60.
A similar case concerning Salvador, Bahia was brought to my attention by Antônio Nery Filho, a professor at this city’s federal university. Children wash the windscreens of cars that stop at a traffic light. Everyone’s share is proportionate to the amount of work done. However, the money coming from gratuities is not the result of the children’s work and is, therefore, divided between the children into equal shares. In this example, two criteria preside over the division of money. The first one is proportionate to the children’s individual effort and highlights their skill. The second one, which is an egalitarian criterion, is applied because the sum brought in is not the result of work.
- 61.
‘Aonde, que aonde existe respeito, tem a moral.’
- 62.
‘Dava respeito porque nos nào dava mole pra eles.’
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Lucchini, R. (2020). The Social Bond and Sociability on the Street. In: Children in Street Situations. Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19040-8_7
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