Making places: The role of attachment in creating the sense of place for traditional streets in Malaysia

Sense of place definition includes the point where the physical element, activity and meaning are intertwined in the people experience of place. In urban design and place quality research, much has been discussed on the significance of the physical elements and activities in creating the sense of place; however, the role of place attachment as a component that gives places meaning(s) has not been adequately explored. This article is based on the main findings of a doctoral research examining attachment to traditional shopping streets in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. Surveys and face-to-face interviews were conducted with users of the streets to investigate place attachment and its influence on place identity. The finding demonstrates that attachment to the traditional streets is strong and it influences the users’ perception on the identity of the places. The streets were regarded as very important in sustaining the economic activities and meaningful in accentuating cultural diversity and self and group identity. The historical significance of the area as the earliest shopping locations in the city evoked personal and shared meanings to the long-term users who developed stronger place attachment. The paper concludes by establishing that place attachment has a significant contribution to the sense of place therefore should be considered in the design of urban places especially when redevelopment is one of the options.     

The bad and the ugly: ethical concerns in participatory photographic methods with children living and working on the streets of Lima,Peru

Visual methods are particularly well suited for getting at the ways in which children living and working on the street understand their socio-spatial environment, and can bridge gaps between researcher and researched. In this study, adolescents who live and work on the streets of Lima are asked to take photographs, documenting their lives and their socio-spatial environments. While participatory methods such as photovoice can bring children and adolescents into the research process and can provide significant benefits to research and its participants, the introduction of photographic methods with marginalised populations carries with it important ethical concerns. This article explores the various critiques of documentary photography, and ethical concerns that arise when using visual methods, including issues of exploitation and intrusion in research with adolescents living on the streets. It also examines the ways in which researchers must continuously reassess their methodological practices in order to protect the best interests of the participants involved.     

Homeless youths' perceptions of services and transitions to stable housing

Use of available services is low among homeless youths, and how youth make decisions to access services or seek housing is unclear. This study explored perspectives of current and former street youth about these processes. Recruited from the streets and a drop-in center, 27 youth ages 16–24, participated in individual qualitative interviews. Findings from consensual qualitative analyses indicated choices to use services were embedded within developing autonomy and identification with street lifestyles. Themes of self-reliance, substance use, and relationships with street and housed persons were expressed as critical for both using services and transitioning to stable housing. Agency-related factors such as caring staff, a nonjudgmental atmosphere, and flexible policies were perceived as important for service use while youth-related factors such as experiencing major events, being internally motivated, and embracing mainstream values were seen as conducive to transitioning off the streets. Implications for service providers and future research are discussed.     

Vulnerability to violence of girls of the street in Mauritania

This article is concerned with an empirical study of girls of the street in Mauritania. This study is original for three main reasons. First, it investigates Mauritania, a country where there have been very few studies of the phenomenon of children of the street. Secondly, it seems to us that though the academic literature on street children sometimes provides comparisons between girls and boys, very few studies focus specifically on girls of the street. Thirdly, the literature focusing on children of the street generally elucidates the mechanisms that lead some young people to live on the streets. On the contrary to previous literature, our study does not directly focus on mechanisms that lead some young people to live on the streets. Our study focuses on the question of the socio-economic determinants of the risk of violence. In other words, whereas the literature, following the hypothesis of aberrant families, uses violence as an explanatory factor for the phenomenon of children of the street, we attempt here to highlight the explanatory factors for the risk of violence and we treat this risk as an explained variable. A novel finding emerges from this study: there is less risk of violence facing girls of the street if the mother does not work. Conversely, the risk of violence is greater if the mother works and the father stays at home.     

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF THE MOTHER-CHILD RELATIONSHIP ON SEX WORKERS’ DECISION TO ENTER AND LEAVE THE STREETS – LESSONS FOR SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

This paper focuses on ‘streetwalkers’ and ‘street sex workers’ who are unlicensed sex workers not belonging to a brothel and subject to criminalization. They often face great stigmatization and are usually considered victims by service providers. Five Singaporean ex-streetwalkers (n = 5), who had left the streets for at least six months and were currently receiving or had previously received skills training at a social service agency, participated in this study. Using an agentic framework and social relational theory principles, this qualitative study explored the impact of streetwalkers’ relationship with their children on their decision to enter and leave the streets and reasons for their successful help-seeking experiences. Findings revealed them to be agents who actively used strategies to meet their goals and to sustain close relationships with their children. The mother–child relationship context was a key influence on their decision to enter and/or leave the streets. Social work practice implications include tailoring service delivery to tap into their agentic capacities and identity as mothers; research and training in provision of proactive social services in a non-judgmental manner to preserve the dignity of these women while meeting both their own and their children’s needs.     

Agency as vulnerability: accounting for children's movement to the streets of Accra

This paper considers the agency of children moving to the streets of Accra, Ghana's capital city. A much used but largely unexamined concept, agency is nevertheless commonly deployed in childhood studies as a means to stress the capacity of children to choose to do things. In the literature on street and working children, and a cognate area of study concerned with children's independent migration, this has involved accounts of children's agency made meaningful by reference to theories of rational choice or to the normative force of childhood. It is our argument that both approaches leave unanswered important questions and to counter these omissions we draw upon the arguments of social realists and, in particular, the stress they place on vulnerability as the basis for human agency. We develop this argument further by reference to our research with street children. By drawing upon the children's accounts of leaving their households and heading for Accra's streets, it is our contention that these children do frame their departures as matters of individual choice and self‐determination, and that in doing so they speak of a considerable capacity for action. Nevertheless, a deeper reading of their testimonies also points to the children's understandings of their own vulnerability. By examining what we see as their inability to be dependent upon family and kin, we stress the importance of the children's perceptions of their vulnerability, frailty and need as the basis for a fuller understanding of their agency in leaving their households.     

Street children in Trinidad and Tobago: understanding their lives and experiences

A community-based action research process, over a three-year period, employed interviews and participant observations with five children living on the streets in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. Data revealed violence in the family to be a contributing factor to children's presence on the streets: it was also a feature of their lives on the streets. A complex pattern emerged of violence, hostility, and distorted social interactions amidst negative attitudes and disdainful behaviour all around them. It is argued that, although it is not easy, more people – professionals and citizens – would do well to listen to, and understand the lives of, street children in order to be motivated for change.     

Attachment intervention through peer-based interaction: Working with Istanbul's street boys in a university setting

Street youths are a particularly vulnerable group because of early experiences of emotional and physical neglect and abuse which can make them difficult to approach. Traditional interventions such as 1 h weekly therapy sessions do not meet their needs. This article describes a creative and novel approach to the rehabilitation of street children implemented during the To-Gather with Youth Project (TYP) under the aegis of the Research and Application Center to Support Children/Youth Living and Working in the Streets (SOYAÇ) at Maltepe University in Istanbul, running in collaboration with state-run care institutions for boys since 2010. The approach consists of a peer-based supportive model that provides adolescent boys care with emotional and social security through attachment relationships that they develop with university students. The teaching staff and students of the psychology department constitute the core group running the program, which also includes workshops assisted by teachers and students from humanities departments such as philosophy, drama, and radio. These workshops are organized to promote the psychosocial and cognitive development of the participating street boys as well as to enable their direct access to the public through their art and photography. Based on a qualitative analysis of narrative interviews with boys and detailed observational reports by project volunteers, we identify several mechanisms that we believe contribute to change in the boys, including the development of secure attachment relationships with a trusted adult, a child-centered approach, and a socially safe environment created by peer-support in a university setting. The boys and volunteers also reported incidents and feelings that seem to suggest that the boys' have increased their capacity to regulate their emotions, sense of self-esteem and resilience, and desire to develop their lives in the future. This paper offers this intervention as a feasible service model for the rehabilitation of street boys in other cities.     

Street children in contemporary Greece

This article gives an overview of the problem of street children in Greece, within the context of global research on street children. The article draws on preliminary findings from recent research on street children in the urban centre of Athens. This is an under‐researched area, with weak policy responses to a problem associated with recent patterns of European migration (in the Greek case, chiefly from Albania). Methods used include observational research and in‐depth interviews with street children, policy actors and professionals.     

Street Children in Nairobi and the African Cultural Ideology of Kin-Based Support System. Change and Challenge

Poverty, rapid urbanization, population growth rate, family instability and the declining role of the extended family system are among the key factors responsible for the prevalence of child abuse and neglect in Nairobi. In this state of flux, cases of children who have been battered, abandoned, abused and neglected by their families or displaced as a result of armed conflict in the region have increased at an astounding pace over the past several years. One out of every three children from poor urban families in Kenya is regularly battered or subjected to other forms of maltreatment by a parent or other family members, the public and the authorities. Basically, there are two levels of abuse and neglect. There is abuse and neglect which children experience at home and which drives them onto the streets. There is also abuse and neglect which street children endure while on the streets. This paper discusses some of the ways in which abuse and neglect affect the lives of street children and families. It also highlights the plight of a sample of street children as exemplified by the kinds of difficulties which they endure while on the street. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychosocial Problems Associated With Homelessness in Sexual Minority Youths

Sexual minorities are overrepresented among homeless youths, and this is often related to reactions to their status as sexual minorities. While on the streets, they are at increased risk for victimization, substance and alcohol use, sexual risk behaviors, and mental health issues compared to homeless heterosexual youths. This article uses ecological systems theory to examine psychosocial problems associated with homelessness among sexual minority youths and reviews empirical literature examining outcomes related to homeless sexual minority youths including mental health, substance use, and sexual risk behavior. Implications for social work are discussed including practice, policy, and suggestions for future studies.     

Gifted delinquents: What do we know about them?

Gifted and talented youths—defined as youths who show achievement or potential ability in regard to general intelligence, a specific academic area, creative or productive thinking, leadership, visual or performing arts, or psychomotor activities—constitute one of the nation's most vital resources. Some portion of these youths come in contact with the juvenile court. This article reviews the research on gifted delinquents with particular attention to four longitudinal studies, three British and one American. The research is examined in order to ascertain whether it lends support to the thesis that bright youths are more vulnerable to delinquency because they are more sensitive to an unfavorable environment, or to the thesis that they are protected against delinquency because of their greater ability to understand and cope with environmental conditions. The findings indicate that bright youths are less likely to appear in delinquent populations than others and more likely to come from disrupted and unstable homes. To some extent they support the thesis that bright children are protected from delinquency by their intelligence except in extreme family circumstances. School performance for most bright delinquents is far below capacity, although there is evidence that some youths become disruptive outside of school before their school performance deteriorates.     

Youth interaction with online strangers: experiences and reactions to unknown people on the Internet

Previous research on youths’ experiences with online strangers has mostly utilized quantitative designs which may result in the omission of important parts of the youths’ experiences and perceptions. In this qualitative study, we adopt a child-centred approach and focus on the children’s and adolescents’ experiences with unknown people from the Internet. This is one of the most pronounced parental concerns, despite the fact that an online presence is now normative for most children. We use the data from focus-groups and individual interviews in nine European countries (N?=?368) conducted with youths between the ages of 9 and 16 years. Participants were asked about their perceptions of potentially negative or problematic situations while using the Internet and digital technology. Using thematic analysis, we classified youths’ experiences and reactions related to interacting with online strangers in four themes: (1) non-verbal interaction; (2) initiation of contact; (3) communication; and (4) face-to-face meeting. In all four levels of interactions, children and adolescents reported a variety of positive and negative experiences and reactions. We interpret our findings with a co-construction model which perceives children and adolescents as active participants in the online world. We conclude that children are successfully making active decisions to initiate, continue, and stop interactions with unknown people from the Internet. These findings broaden the current perspectives of youths’ meetings with unknown people online.     

Theory,practice, and perspectives: Disability Studies and parenting children with disabilities

Abstract

In this process-oriented article, the authors weave short personal narratives with theoretical reflections to examine the relationship between Disability Studies scholarship and parenting children with disabilities. The authors present three findings: first, their position as parent-teacher-scholars informs their work in Disability Studies. Second, the work of Disability Studies scholars has the potential to positively influence parents’ understandings of disability; consequently, Disability Studies-informed parenting can influence parent advocacy for their children. Third, parent-scholars have the potential to create research that can positively impact parents, practitioners, and the field of Disability Studies. The authors conclude by arguing that there is a need for Disability Studies scholarship for and by parents. This work is significant because it challenges divisions between theory and practice, and articulates a need and responsibility for parents to grapple with alternative understandings of disability and alternative (collective) ways to create better social conditions for their children.     

‘Vorkuta is the capital of the world’: people,place and the everyday production of the local

This article considers the relationship between people and place in the everyday production of the local. Based on empirical research with young people in Russia's far north it offers an empirically substantiated argument that processes of deterritorialization do not necessarily imply the disembedding of people from either the national or the local. Drawing on discursive psychological approaches to the construction of nationhood, the article demonstrates how national and local patriotisms are produced through a post‐Soviet project of nationalism and an active programme of flagging the city by the city administration. Through an exploration of the everyday manifestation and articulation of ties between people and place, however, it also suggests some of the limitations to theories of the everyday discursive production of nationhood. Connections to place, it is argued, are not only unconscious or linguistic expressions of discursively produced subjects, but emotional and sensual responses to the material (urban space, nature, climate) and symbolic (hymns, flags, historical narratives) environment. This suggests the need to conceptualize place as a site of the active production and enactment of subjectivity, which is itself not only the product of language and discourse but of experience, affect and ‘matter’.     

The reasons why children work on the streets: A sample from Turkey

The phenomenon of children working on the streets is a societal issue in all underdeveloped or developing countries just as it is in Turkey. The purpose of this research was to examine the reasons that children work on the street by conducting individual in-depth interviews with working children and their mothers, choosing individuals from similar socioeconomic demographic backgrounds and making a comparison of their acceptance or rejection of working, the perception of social support received by the mothers, and their problem-solving skills. The research was a mixed study that used both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The research was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, quantitative comparisons were made of the problem-solving skills of and social support received by the mothers of children working on the streets (n = 37) and non-working children (n = 35) and of the parental acceptance or rejection/control status of working children (n = 41) and non-working children (n = 41). In the second stage, the reasons children were working on the streets were evaluated qualitatively with seven children who were working on the streets and nine mothers. The Child/Adolescent Parental Acceptance–Rejection/Control Questionnaire, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the Problem-Solving Inventory, and individual interview questionnaires were used as data collection tools. The social support and problem solving skills of the mothers with children working on the streets were lower than those of the mothers whose children were not working. The main themes and sub-themes that stood out at the end of the research were socioeconomic and political factors, environmental factors, cultural factors and family factors.     

Prostitution as a Form of Work

In recent years, prostitution increasingly has been recast as a form of 'sex work', which directs attention to both the work itself and the larger occupational milieu in which it takes place. This article examines several aspects of the work environment, including important variations between different types of workers (on the street and in indoor venues), relations between workers and customers, and what is known about the role of various managers involved in recruitment, socialization, and control over workers. The article highlights areas in which further research will provide a more complete picture of sex work in different kinds of contexts.     

The influence of family process and structure on delinquency in adolescence—An examination of theory and research

This article describes three different realms of theories examining the relationship of the family to youth delinquency. The first approach focuses on the psychological processes and interactions between children and their parents. The second considers the role of family structure. The final approach considers economic factors that relate to family functioning and delinquency. Research in each theoretical area uniformly showed that attachment between parents and their adolescents makes a difference in the adolescent’s participation in delinquency.     

Interactional Past and Potential: The Social Construction of Place Attachment

This article presents an interactionist-based theory of place attachment, the emotional bond formed by an individual to a physical site due to the meaning given to the site through interactional processes, and suggests that such attachment is comprised of two interwoven components: (1) interactional past, or the memories of interactions associated with a site, and (2) interactional potential, or the future experiences perceived as likely or possible to occur in a site. To discuss these components, I use the case of an organization that moved to a new location, thereby disrupting its employees’ place attachment to the original site. Data collection involved questionnaires, participant observation, and interviews.