(Introductory Seminar)
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10
Professor
Kathleen B. Morrison
Class Meetings: Mondays and Wednesdays,
2:15 - 4:05 p.m. Students will also be required to view four films that will
be shown on Thursday evenings, 7-9 p.m.
Location: Bolivar House Seminar Room
Office Hours: K. Morrison - By appointment: call Evelyn at 723-4444 to schedule.
Thurs.10
- 11:20 a.m. ; Fri. 2 - 3:40 p.m
OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE: The study of street and working children in contemporary Latin America provides a means to examine broader issues and themes of the region: rural-urban migration patterns, the informal economy and labor sector, human rights, ethnicity and identity, the costs of structural adjustment policies, environmental and other health hazards, the role of public and private institutions, and grassroots mobilization. Disciplinary perspectives on the plight of street and working children will include sociological and demographic profiles; psychological studies; depictions in literature, film and other forms of popular culture; ethnographies; and economic analyses. Particular attention will be devoted to case studies of institutional responses to the estimated 40 million children who live and/or work on the city streets of Latin America today.
FORMAT:The seminar will meet twice a week, devoting each week’s sessions to a particular theme.Typically, each session will begin with an introductory presentation, often illustrated by primary source material (e.g., newspaper accounts, political cartoons, speeches, film and video clips, photographs, testimonials); sessions will also include student discussion of the assigned readings as well as of the presentation. Some of the discussions will be structured (e.g., debate style), and, in some instances, students will be responsible for leading discussion of specific articles or themes. Students will also be view four films that will be shown on Thursday evenings, 7-9 p.m.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Students will complete three brief written assignments (2-3 pages) based on readings and discussion, as well as a country case study and oral report.The results of this case study will be mounted on the class web site. The final assignment (8-10 pages) will be a choice of: a scholarly (or "informed") book or film review (with references to class material); or a policy memorandum for an international development organization (specific guidelines will be given).
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Duncan Green, Faces of Latin America (London: Latin American Bureau, 1997). 2nd Edition.
Tobias Hecht, At Home in the Street (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
J.J. Thomas, Surviving in the City: The Informal Sector in Latin America (East Haven, CT: Pluto Press, 1995).
In addition, a course reader will be available for purchase at the first class meeting.
Finally, each student will read one novel or testimonial selected from a list distributed at the second meeting of the seminar.
GRADING:The course must be taken for a letter grade, which will be based on the following:
Class
participation 20%
Written case study and oral presentation 25%
Brief written assignments 30%
Final assignment 25%
PROFILES OF THE STREET CHILD IN LATIN AMERICA
Readings:"Children without a future," from A. Raphael and J. Berkman, Children without a future (Washington, D.C.: Brazil Network, 1992).
Sanchez Leon, Abelardo, "Lima and the Children of Chaos," in R. Morse and J. Hardoy (eds.), Rethinking the Latin American City (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1992).
Barker, Gary and Felicia Knaul, "Exploited Entrepreneurs: Street and Working Children in Developing Countries," CHILDHOPE-USA, Inc., Working Paper Number 1, 1991.
Levenson, Deborah, “The Maras of Guatemala City: Notes on an Anguished World of Teenagers,” International Labor and Working-Class History, No. 39, Spring 1991, pp. 35-48. [top]
Readings: Green, Faces of Latin America, Ch. 1 & 2
Rosenthal, Gert, “Development thinking and policies: the way ahead,” CEPAL Review, No. 60 (December 1996).
Thiesenhusen, William, “Introduction to Rural Poverty in Latin America,” Chapter 1 from Broken Promises: Agrarian Reform and the Latin American Campesino (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995).
Brockett, C.D., "Agrarian Transformation and Rural Economic Security," from Land, Power, and Poverty: Agrarian Transformation and Political Conflict in Central America (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990). [top]
Readings: Green, Faces of Latin America, Ch. 4 & 5 Portes, Alejandro, "Latin American Urbanization During the Years of the Crisis," Latin American Research Review, Vol 24, No. 3, 1989.
Villa, Miguel and Jorge Rodriguez, “Demographic trends in Latin America’s metropolises, 1950-1990,” from Alan Gilbert (ed.), The mega-city in Latin America (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1996).
Roberts, Bryan, "Transitional Cities," in R. Morse and J. Hardoy (eds.), Rethinking the Latin American City (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1992).
Mathur, Om Prakash, “The Dual Challenge of poverty and mega-cities: An assessment of issues and strategies,” from R.J. Fuchs, E. Brennan, J. Chamie et al. (eds.), Mega-City Growth and the Future (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1994).
Gilbert, A., "The Move to the City," from The Latin American City (London: Latin America Bureau, 1994). [top]
WEEK 4: POVERTY, POPULATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATIONReadings: Green, Faces of Latin America, ch. 3 & 6
Naylor, Rosamond, "Provisioning the Cities into the 21st Century," unpublished manuscript.
Lappe, Frances Moore, Joseph Collins, and Peter Rosset (with Luis Esparza), “Myth 4: Food vs. Our Environment,” Chapter 4 from World Hunger: 12 Myths (London, Earthscan Publications, 1998, second edition).
Kelly, T.J. & M. wa Gubinji, "Environmental Degradation and Poverty in Less Industrialized Nations," Revista Frontera Norte, Num. Especial Pobreza, 1994.
Angotti, Thomas, “Latin American Urbanization and Planning: Inequality and Unsustainability in North and South,” Latin American Perspectives, Issue 91, Vol. 23, No. 4, Fall 1996, pp. 12-34. [top]
WEEK 5: THE EFFECTS OF MIGRATION AND CIVIL CONFLICTReadings: Green, Faces of Latin America, Ch. 7, 8 & 9
Kirk, Robin, "Feeding the Tiger: Colombia's Internally Displaced People," U.S. Committee on Refugees Issue Paper, American Council for Nationalities Service, 1993.
Arroyo,W., M.D., and S. Eth, M.D., "Children Traumatized by Central American Warfare," in S. Eth, M.D., and R. Pynoos, M.D., M.P.H. (eds.), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children (Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, Inc., 1985).
Kent, George, Children in the International Political Economy, Chapter 6: “Armed Conflict” (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995). [top]
Readings: Green, Faces of Latin America, Ch. 10
Hecht, Tobias, At Home in the Street, Introduction and Chapters 1-3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Thomas, J.J. Surviving in the City: The Urban Informal Sector in Latin America, Ch. 1 & 2 (London: Pluto Press, 1995).
Gilbert, A., "The World of Work," from The Latin American City (London: Latin America Bureau, 1994).
Humphrey, J., "Are the Unemployed Part of the Urban Poverty Problem in Latin America?," Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3, October 1994. [top]
WEEK 7: THE CULTURE OF THE STREET CHILDReadings: Thomas, J.J., Surviving in the City, Ch. 3.
Hecht, Tobias, At Home in the Street, Chapters 4 and 5
Dorfman, Ariel, "Bread and Burnt Rice: Cultural and Economic Survival in Latin America," Grassroots Development, Vol 8, No. 2, 1984.
Larmer, B. and M. Margolis, "Dead End Kids," Newsweek, May 25, 1992.
Salazar, Alonzo, "Young Assassins of the Drug Trade," NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. 27, No. 6, May/June 1994.
DeCesare, Donna, “The Children of War: Street Gangs in El Salvador,” NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. XXXII (July/Aug 1998). [top]
WEEK 8: THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILDReadings: Nightingale, E.O. and R.E. Wurf, "Children and Human Rights in Latin America," in M. Agosin (ed.), Surviving Beyond Fear: Women, Children & Human Rights in Latin America (Fredonia, N.Y.: White Pine Press, 1993).
Lykes, M.B., "Children in the Storm": Psychosocial Trauma in Latin America," in M. Agosin (ed.), Surviving Beyond Fear: Women, Children & Human Rights in Latin America (Fredonia, N.Y.: White Pine Press, 1993).
Schirmer,
J.G.,"Chile: The Loss of Childhood," in M. Agosin (ed.), Surviving Beyond
Fear: Women, Children & Human Rights in Latin America (Fredonia,
N.Y.: White Pine Press, 1993).
Arditti, R. and M.B. Lykes, "The Disappeared Children of Argentina: The Work of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo," in M. Agosin (ed.), Surviving Beyond Fear: Women, Children & Human Rights in Latin America (Fredonia, N.Y.: White Pine Press, 1993).
Chelala, C.A., "Life and Death in El Salvador," in M. Agosin (ed.), Surviving Beyond Fear: Women, Children & Human Rights in Latin America (Fredonia, N.Y.: White Pine Press, 1993).
Human Rights Watch Children’s Project, Generation Under Fire: Children and Violence in Colombia (New York: Human Rights Watch, 199X), pp. ix -22.[top]
Readings: Hecht, Tobias, At Home in the Street, Chapters 6, 7 and Conclusion
Paiva, Vera, "Sexuality, Condom Use and Gender Norms among Brazilian Teenagers," Reproductive Health Matters, #2, Nov. 1993.
Dimenstein, G., "Little Girls of the Night," NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. 27, No. 6, May/June 1994.
Adapted fromUNICEF's annual report, The State of the World's Children 1994, "The Struggle for Children's Health," NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. 27, No. 6, May/June 1994.
Barker, G., P. Sanchez, D. Penarete, and N. Ruiz, "Attitudes and Knowledge of AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases among Street Youth in Bogota, Colombia," CHILDHOPE U.S.A. Working Paper #5. [top]
WEEK 10: GRASSROOTS AND OTHER RESPONSESReadings: Green, Faces of Latin America, Ch 11 & 12
Thomas, J.J., Surviving in the City, Ch. 4.
Otero, M., “The Role of Governments and Private Institutions in Addressing the Informal Sector in Latin America,” in C. Rakowski (ed.) Contrapunto: The Informal Sector Debate in Latin America (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994).
Scanlon, T., F. Scanlon, and M. L. Nobre Lamarao, "Working with Street Children," Development in Practice, Vol. 3, No. 1, February 1993.
Hall, Anthony, "Non-Governmental Organizations and Development in Brazil under Dictatorship and Democracy," in C. Abel and C. Lewis (eds.), Welfare, Poverty and Development in Latin America (London: MacMillan Press, Ltd., 1993).
Buechler, Hans, Judith-Maria Buechler, Simone Buechler, and Stephanie Buechler, “Financing Small-Scale Enterprises in Bolivia,” from Lynne Phillips (Ed.), The Third Wave of Modernization: Cultural Perspectives on Neoliberalism (Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 1998).
Raphael, A. and J. Berkman, "Brazilians Organize to Assist Street Children," from Children without a future (Washington, D.C.: Brazil Network, 1992).
Aptekar, Lewis, "Policy and Programs: Using the Ambivalence of Envy and Disdain," from Street Children of Cali (Durham, N.C.: Duke U. Press, 1988).
Breslin,
Patrick, "Can Development Be a Two-Way Street?," Grassroots Development,
Vol. 14, No. 2, 1990.
Goncalves Almeida, Fernanda, and Inaia Maria Moreira de Carvalho, “Projeto Axe: Educating Excluded Children in Salvador,” from Roslyn Arlin Mickelson (ed.), Children on the Streets of the Americas (New York: Routledge, 2000).
Pessoa de Queiroz, Amelia Maria Noronha, and Ligia Gomes Elliot, “Projeto Semear: Equalizing Opportunities for Adolescents at Risk in Rio de Janeiro,” from Roslyn Arlin Mickelson (ed.), Children on the Streets of the Americas (New York: Routledge, 2000). [top]