"Vagrants cannot have success" : street youth as cultural agents in Yogyakarta

Abstract

"Vagrants Cannot Have Success" is a social anthropological study of street youth in Yogyakarta, Java. The aim of the study is to describe how street youth are cultural and social agents, who actively participate in the construction of their worlds through social engagements and activities. To grasp the complexities of their experiences, I show how they maneuver through different social fields and cultural landscapes, and orient themselves towards different sources to give meaning to their life situation and actions. With these observations as a framework, I hope to challenge the notions that children and youth are passive recipients of socialization, and mere victims of oppression, but to focus on street youth are not insignificant in processes of cultural (re)production. A central topic of this thesis is street youth agency, and how they struggle to maintain and expand their social and cultural space. At times the street youth will engage in activities, such as crime and drug abuse, which feed negative stereotypes. Nevertheless, I argue that such acts have to be understood in light of power relations and oppression, and the street youth's attempts to control their life situation, and maintain dignity and respect. I further show how the street youth's identities and self-concepts are constructed through social engagements and in relation to marginalization and stigmatization. The processes of construction of identity and self become important aspects of street youth agency. Finally, I show how different ideals of progress (kemajuan) are negotiated and articulate with each other and through the street youth's constructions of dreams and goals for the future. I argue that social, economical and political oppression, which leave them with limited possibilities within mainstream society, create ambivalence and conflicting attitudes towards their life situation and prospects for the future. I argue that what I call "on the street" vs. "off the street" ambivalence is expressed in different situations. At times the street youth foreground street values, at other times they wish to be "normal".