Abstract
In many cities of the Global South children are a large and visible segment of the street-based population. This chapter focuses on two common street-based occupations: shoe-shining and lottery vending. Employing a relational approach this chapter views young street-working lives in connection with the wider social and cultural context of which they are part. It illuminates how young, male, street-based workers position themselves in the relational hierarchy of Addis Ababa’s street life. Yet, various vulnerabilities, some of them structural in nature, render fragile the realisation and maintenance of a degree of dignity and untenable in the long run given the friction between street-based work with valued forms of male social adulthood.
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Belay, D.G. (2016). ‘Being Small Is Good’: A Relational Understanding of Dignity and Vulnerability Among Young Male Shoe-Shiners and Lottery Vendors on the Streets of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In: Huijsmans, R. (eds) Generationing Development. Palgrave Studies on Children and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55623-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55623-3_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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