Earning childhood in Manila, Philippines : working children's agency in their everyday life

Abstract

This is an ethnography of working children in an urban low-income neighbourhood in Manila, the Philippines. What does it mean for the children to be working? In answering this question, I aim to bring in the children's point of view in understanding childhood in order to account for their agency. Previous studies of working children have focused on social structures in accounting for the situation of working children, and laid less emphasis on the capacity, agency and power of children to craft their own lives under difficult conditions of poverty and deprivation. This thesis tries to give a more balanced picture of working children's lives than was often the case in previous reports of child labour, that is, children as victims of poverty. Studies of childhood in social sciences have largely been characterised by the 'socialisation' paradigm which viewed children as blank slates to be written on, and as objects of adult activities. Since the late 1980s, a new paradigm, often referred to as the 'new sociology of childhood', emerged. This called for recognition of children as social actors with their own view of the world that may be different from adults. A particular concept of childhood emerged by the early 20th century in industrialising countries that childhood is a special period in one's life characterised by innocence and dependency. Within that concept, study and play are deemed appropriate for children, but not work or adult-like responsibilities. One main argument condemning chid labour is based on this particular concept of childhood which sees working children as being denied childhood. However, work is an important part of childhood in the context of poverty in Paco and Pandacan, Manila. I argue that contrary to the imagery of 'lost childhood' of working children, working children in Paco and Pandacan, in fact, 'earn' their own childhood through working. Work makes it possible for the children to have what they consider important in their lives, namely education and being part of the family. The particular concept of childhood with the image of children as vulnerable and dependent, and in need of protection, has increasingly become an 'international gold standard' for childhood. However, this thesis argues that denying children work marginalises them from production of value and hinders us from recognising children's active contribution to their own lives as well as to others.