Surviving on the streets of Java: homeless children's narratives of violence

This article examines narratives of personal experience from homeless stree t youths in urban Indonesia. Following current research on narrative and vi ctimization, the author identities the processes of identity production req uired for survival in a world of rejection, deprivation and violence. The a rticle also demonstrates how the children's repertoire of subject positions is constructed in relation to the power structures of the streets through which violence can be conditionally interpreted along a scale of acceptabil ity. These life stories present us with a practice for constructing the sel f beyond that of agent or victim and without the sense of trauma mainstream adults associate with sexual abuse and violence. The stories also present scholars and outreach workers with an intimate glimpse of the street child' s cognitive strategies for survival.