Abstract

RAUSKY, María Eugenia. Work and family: working children's contribution to home social reproduction. Trab. soc. [online]. 2009, n.12. ISSN 1514-6871.

The rol played by working children in the workframe of social reproduction strategies in the homes of poor people is the aim of this article. Emphasis is here placed in analysing practices and representations of children and their parents vis-avis said phenomena. It is most frequent that work done by children is carried out in family contexts. Due to this fact, we focus not only in the child, but also his family, making observations on work organizative process, and the place the work done by children has in the generation of both financial and non-financial income sources in the homes of the poor.Observations are also made in the significance associated with this practice as well as on  the impact in family relations made by the fact that children also cooperate in  home social reproduction. Taking into considerations these points, we decided to do the investigation with an approach of the qualitatative type. Field work was made in 2004 and 2006 in a neighborhood with structural poverty features, located in the urban peripheral area of La Plata . There, we selected a total of home units showing situations involving children work, and we  worked in depth while making  interviews with the working children and their parents.

Keywords : Child work; Social strategies of reproduction; Poverty.

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