Categories Have Consequences: Street Children as Humanitarian Objects

This dissertation ends by examining from an ethnographic perspective the ways that NGOs in Mumbai respond to the needs of street children. By looking at the functioning of the UN and NGOs committed to helping these children in India, it becomes increasingly clear that the humanitarian infrastructure and the category of street child move in tandem. By using theories developed by cultural studies researchers and scholars of classification and infrastructure, it is possible to show how the classification of street child functions through humanitarian infrastructure. Attention to classification and infrastructure has the potential to open a new avenue for the study of social suffering in childhood, as demonstrated in the final part of this project.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Karnik, Niranjan Subhash

Contributors dc:contributor

• Star, Susan Leigh

• Anthropology, Cultural

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3086094

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/86199