Dissertation Research: The Institutionalization of South African Street Youth in Urban Shelters

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation project will examine the institutional experiences of street children in urban shelters in Durban, South Africa,. The project distinguishes state-sponsored shelters from a newly emerging type of institution, known as "informal" street shelters. Established by youth for youth, informal shelters are places where street youth congregate to create adaptable living conditions for their everyday survival. Instead of focusing on deviance, this project will investigate informal shelters as alternative sites of youth participation where children mitigate the daily realities of urban poverty and create a meaningful sense of social order. Through anthropological methods of participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and archival research, this project will investigate cultural formations of youth identity that occur in these highly marginal settings. This project will examine how street youth both draw upon and depart from the norms of state institutionalization to structure alternative notions of personhood and community. By examining the emergence of informal shelters, this research project will analyze how young people act positively to create meaning in their difficult lives. Broader Impacts: Aside from contributing to the education of a young social scientist, the research findings of this project will assist in policy initiatives that focus on the presence of street youth in urbanized, African settings.