Disputed meanings about child labour, its consequences, and interventions: discussions based on ethnographic research in Argentina

ABSTRACT

Based on ethnographies with working children and their families in low-income neighbourhoods in Argentina, this article explores the experiences constructed around child labour, its meanings, and consequences, taking into account the locations and social relations in which it takes place. In doing so, it offers a nuanced reading of child labour that distances it from the dualistic thinking, deeply rooted in social sciences, in which, on the one hand, researchers conclude that child labour should be eradicated (the work-free childhood discourse) and, on the other hand, it is recognised as a right (the regulationist perspective). Based on field studies, the article challenges this dualistic thinking and presents a nuanced, alternative narrative.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood; child labour;
• global south; poverty;
• ethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. It is worth noting that both discourses are unequally installed in the public sphere. The abolitionist discourse is not only more widespread and recognised, but is also legally formulated through international agreements which compel signatory states to adopt the policy of eradication (Sepúlveda Kattan 2021).

2. Argentina is the Latin American country with the highest minimum age for work, developing an “over compliance” to the norms (Fontana and Grugel 2017). While the International Labour Organisation (ILO) stipulated 14 years old as the minimum age, Argentina raised it to 16.

3. In addition, it should be noted that the ILO does not consider all child labour as adverse, and therefore establishes a distinction between child work and child labour. Child work refers to the participation of children in economic activities that do not adversely affect them, that are carried out within the family itself, with low intensity and that are not essential to support themselves. Child labour is defined as those forms of work considered exploitative and harmful that interfere negatively in the development of children’s lives. We do not take into account this distinction because we consider it heuristically unproductive in interpreting the contexts we studied, so we use the notion without distinction. We observe that local policies to eradicate child labour are implemented under the assumption that any type of child labour is harmful to children and violates their basic rights, i.e., in practice no action is taken on the basis of the distinction between types of child labour.

4. It should be noted that each author has undertaken research projects (one at Colonia Wanda, Misiones, and the other at La Plata City, Buenos Aires) but the theoretical and methodological approach that guided the empirical research has been the same. From this common framework, and as a result of the commonalities that we found in our studies, we are interested in jointly analysing child labour in different territories of Argentina.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET) under grant [PIP 11220150100863]; and the Fund for Scientific and Technological Research (FONCyT) under grant [PICT 2017-0066], Argentina.

Notes on contributors

María Eugenia Rausky

María Eugenia Rausky holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires and master’s degree in Methodology of Social Sciences (National University of Tres de Febrero and University of Bologna). She is a professor at the National University of La Plata, Argentina, and a researcher affiliated with the National Scientific and Technical Research Council.

Laura Frasco Zuker

Laura Frasco Zuker holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the National University of San Martín. She was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research based at the Laboratory of Human Sciences Research (National University of San Martín). She teaches at the Department of Health Sciences at National University of La Matanza.