Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2009, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (5): 168-186.

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Failure of the Traditional Childcare Model and the Causes of Street Children: An Ethnographic Study of the Street Children in the Shanghai Railway Station Neighborhood

 CHENG Fu-Cai   

  • Online:2009-09-20 Published:2009-09-20

Abstract:

The phenomenon of street children is universal. The ethnographic study of 49 street children in the Shanghai Railway Station neighborhood has discovered the major factors for the problem of street children: family dysfunction, ruraltourban migration, and children’s pursuit for their autonomy. These issues were a result of the macro social transformation in current China and had caused a rupture between the culturally determined normative childcare model and the real life conditions of many children, which has forced many of them to run away for alternative life opportunities.

Key words: organization theory, practice, paradigm
,
causes for running away, social transformation, street children