Negotiating a living: working children in Kolkata

<p>The majority of children, involved in both waged and unwaged work exist beyond the control and comprehension of national and international regulation, within the informal economy. Research has shown that the informal economy, contrary to general perception, is not a sphere of unregulated ac...

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Main Author: Kumar, T
Other Authors: McDowell, L
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
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author Kumar, T
author2 McDowell, L
author_facet McDowell, L
Kumar, T
author_sort Kumar, T
collection OXFORD
description <p>The majority of children, involved in both waged and unwaged work exist beyond the control and comprehension of national and international regulation, within the informal economy. Research has shown that the informal economy, contrary to general perception, is not a sphere of unregulated activity, but rather, operates through alternative structures and techniques of power. Children's work within the informal economy, and therefore outside the regulative reach of the state, is subject to extra-legal modes of regulation that are pursued through elaborate systems of discipline and power exercised by non-state actors, groups, and social institutions and networks.</p> <p>Through a case study on children in Kolkata, India, who are engaged in specific forms of informal work in three distinct urban spaces – domestic servitude in the private realm of the home, small-scale manufacturing and service work in factories and shops, and ragpicking, scavenging and begging on the streets – this thesis aims to explore the way children's lives are constructed through work and space, to uncover the social processes and relations of power that working children navigate in order to build and sustain their livelihoods. I examine the way that children's spaces of work are imbued with social relations of gender, caste, religion, ethnicity and power that are enacted through the construction of hierarchies, divisions of labour, and work regimes. I also explore the politics of these spaces, revealing the primary economic partnerships and obstacles that children contend with in constructing their working lives. Overall, I aim to uncover the ways in which children engage with and negotiate the extra-legal systems of regulation by categorically analysing children's work in the home, shop and factory, and street.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:6fbe18b8-093d-490b-9ed9-783d4a7ede562023-07-21T09:58:44ZNegotiating a living: working children in KolkataThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:6fbe18b8-093d-490b-9ed9-783d4a7ede56AsiaChildren and youthGeographySocial SciencesEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2014Kumar, TMcDowell, LJeffrey, C<p>The majority of children, involved in both waged and unwaged work exist beyond the control and comprehension of national and international regulation, within the informal economy. Research has shown that the informal economy, contrary to general perception, is not a sphere of unregulated activity, but rather, operates through alternative structures and techniques of power. Children's work within the informal economy, and therefore outside the regulative reach of the state, is subject to extra-legal modes of regulation that are pursued through elaborate systems of discipline and power exercised by non-state actors, groups, and social institutions and networks.</p> <p>Through a case study on children in Kolkata, India, who are engaged in specific forms of informal work in three distinct urban spaces – domestic servitude in the private realm of the home, small-scale manufacturing and service work in factories and shops, and ragpicking, scavenging and begging on the streets – this thesis aims to explore the way children's lives are constructed through work and space, to uncover the social processes and relations of power that working children navigate in order to build and sustain their livelihoods. I examine the way that children's spaces of work are imbued with social relations of gender, caste, religion, ethnicity and power that are enacted through the construction of hierarchies, divisions of labour, and work regimes. I also explore the politics of these spaces, revealing the primary economic partnerships and obstacles that children contend with in constructing their working lives. Overall, I aim to uncover the ways in which children engage with and negotiate the extra-legal systems of regulation by categorically analysing children's work in the home, shop and factory, and street.</p>
spellingShingle Asia
Children and youth
Geography
Social Sciences
Kumar, T
Negotiating a living: working children in Kolkata
title Negotiating a living: working children in Kolkata
title_full Negotiating a living: working children in Kolkata
title_fullStr Negotiating a living: working children in Kolkata
title_full_unstemmed Negotiating a living: working children in Kolkata
title_short Negotiating a living: working children in Kolkata
title_sort negotiating a living working children in kolkata
topic Asia
Children and youth
Geography
Social Sciences
work_keys_str_mv AT kumart negotiatingalivingworkingchildreninkolkata