Niñez y violencia: experiencias y voces de pequeños actores sociales de la colonia Morelos, D. F. (México)

Abstract

The concept of agency appears crucial to apprehend anthropologically the intersection between violence and childhood as two socially constructed fields between which a dialogical relation is negotiated, one that is much more complex then what is generally portrayed in literature. This article pretends to be an argument for the recognition of this agency of children, more specifically agency that children (7-12 years) living in one of the most marginalized neighborhood of Mexico City, the Colonia Morelos, display facing the different forms of violence (daily, structural and familiar) they experience. The multiple representations and the original readings proposed by children demonstrate the importance of adopting in violence studies a paradigm of childhood based on recognition of children’s own cultures, and at methodological level, of creating spaces for participation in which their voices and their visions can be seriously considered in our understandings of the world.