Relationality in the lives of Street-Connected Young People living in Hazard Prone Areas of Jamaica Jade Catterson Relational Approach “(Over) emphasis and privileging of children’s agency is argued to have led to an under theorisation of the ways in which young lives are enabled and inhibited...by the web of relations, interactions and circumstances in which they are embedded” (Plows 2012). Children’s agency is ambiguous (Bordanaro and Payne 2012) varying in different situations or contexts, known in cases as ’thick and thin’ agency (Klocker 2007). 1980’s/90’s sociological studies connected agency with a child’s need to create independent worlds away from that of their adult counterparts (Durham 2008). A need to move away from this. This is particularly pertinent for street-connected young people due Figure 1: Kenan* Aged 13 on the right with his cousin and a friend from the community. to their ‘atypical’ lifestyle or living arrangements. Their independence from the home environment has led to an increase in their Relational Resilience perceived autonomy and limited research conducted looking at I am looking at the ‘everydayness’ of street-connected young people’s their relational ties. resilience in Jamaica and how they particularly use their relational networks as a coping mechanism in their ongoing struggle with poverty and crime. Resilience is a process rather than a trait and street-connected children and youth move in and out of being resilient in response to the structural processes/events and personal attributes that form their lives . Resilience in the face of Disaster
Figure 2: A main road leading to the Gordon Town community from Kingston has been destroyed after a hurricane and subsequent landslides exposing water pipes and making it very dangerous at night for pedestrians and
Methodology I worked in 3 case study sites in Saint Andrews Parish, Jamaica with approximately 20 young people between 8-18 years old. I have taken a Participatory Ethnography approach in my research using methods including participatory mapping, photography, semi-structured interviews, walking interviews and participant observations. I am acknowledging children and youth as ‘beings’ and ‘becomings’ (Uprichard 2008) and in a constant process of learning, I have engaged in a form of knowledge exchange where we are continuously learning from each other and in turn they will be able to feed back this information/skill back into their own respective communities.
Street-connected young people arguably have many attributes that enhance their resilience including determination, flexibility, adaptability, mobility and spatial awareness. These skills should be harnessed by their relational networks during a hurricane, landslide or flood which could in turn promote their inclusion within the communities in which they derive. “Disasters can underscore the interdependence of individual, family and community systems, as well as biological, physical and ecological systems across levels” (Masten and Narayan 2012).
Figure 3/4: Participatory Mapping in Gordon Town and Bull
Results
Figure 5: Interview with Jenny* aged 9 years.
Family units in Jamaica are complex; varying from single parent households to ‘on-street’ families. Westernised views on family structures are still recognised as the norm but the context and class values that exist among Jamaican lower classes have provided a ‘different’ perspective, something the young people negotiated well. The participants coped relatively well with disasters, with some almost blase about hurricanes and flooding, the coping strategy varied between gender, age and location. They recognised positives of disasters; including financial benefits (theft of goods from shops or storage units) or emotionally, (more quality time with family members). All of the communities worked together to support one another in the aftermath, for many of the young people, this was unprompted. Crime and poverty are an evidently more deep seated worry in street-connected young people’s lives, many discussed their fears of getting hurt or recalled witnessing events. The frequent, almost ’everydayness’ of these experiences has shown to be less easy to resist. Conclusion
More work needs to be done on harnessing the resilience and community spirit that develop in the wake of a disaster to create a more cohesive and inclusionary environment for street-connected young people and their relational networks to support each other on a daily basis. “Things happen in life like a hurricane or storm or whatever and we Jamaicans, we just have to look out for each other and keep our sense of humour....” - (Jamie* Key Informant Aged 21)