The experience of how youth get off the street is scarcely documented. The present study explored what helped and hindered youth in their experience as they tried to get off the street and addressed the following research question: “How have youth experienced trying to get off the street: what has helped and hindered?” Twenty youth, aged 19-24 years of age, living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada who have spent time living on the street were interviewed using Flanagan’s (1954) Critical Incident Technique. The qualitative analysis of the interviews identified 259 critical incidents, forming nine helping categories and six hindering categories when youth tried to leave the streets. The nine helping categories included: (1) Taking Responsibility, (2) Engaging in Constructive Activities, (3) Friends and Family Support, (4) Changing Drug and Alcohol Use, (5) Support from Professional Organizations, (6) Disillusionment of Street Life, (7) Dreams and Hope for a Different Future, (8) Income Assistance and (9) Leaving Negative Influences Behind. The six hindering categories were: (1) Drugs and Alcohol, (2) Emotional Struggles, (3) Lack of Support, (4) Enjoyment of Homelessness, (5) Limited Formal Education, Life Skills and Employment and (6) Income Assistance Difficulties. The results from this study are discussed in relation to implications for theory, practice and future research.

Artists have been performing on city streets since the rise of the first ones. Their performances throughout this time period have been shown to have several characteristics that have formed the basis for a model that frames most contemporary street performances. Previous studies suggest that to regulate street performers would be antithetical to this model. However, no study to date has tested these assertions. In order to determine if a licensed street performance is consistent with the prevailing model, I traveled to London, England to work closely with the performers and administrators of a newly introduced licensing scheme on the London Underground. The data shows that these licensed performers do indeed fit the model because the regulations — in the form of place-time-manner restrictions - have preserved a street performer's sense of freedom. / Department of Anthropology

The phenomenon of street children is world-wide and on the increase despite numerous programs aiming at its eradication. The failure to adequately address this complex and very diverse phenomenon is the result of conceptual confusion with respect to defining who a street child is. The dominant discourse on street children defines them as victims or deviants to be rescued and rehabilitated. As such, the capacity of many of these children for human agency is occluded by excluding them from participation in the construction of solutions to their problems. I argue that, far from being mere victims and deviants, these kids, in running away from alienating structures and finding relative freedom in the street, often become autonomous and are capable of actively defining their situations in their own terms. They are able to challenge the roles assigned to children, make judgements and develop a network of niches in the heart of the metropolis in order to resist exclusion and chronic repression. I further argue that for research and action with street kids to be emancipatory, it is necessary to acknowledge and respect the human agency the kids display in changing their own lives and to capitalize on their voluntary participation in non-formal educational activities as well as in collective advocacy. / The thesis draws on a participatory action research (PAR) methodology spanning eight years of fieldwork with street kids in Cairo, which eclectically combined street ethnography, street work and action science. I critically review the historical development of these methodologies, and I argue for a conception of PAR as an open-ended process of action and reflective participatory research incorporated into everyday activities and work with excluded, marginalized and oppressed groups such as street kids. As such, I pay special attention to the ethical dilemmas that arise in day-to-day PAR practice.

The experience of how youth get off the street is scarcely documented. The present study explored what helped and hindered youth in their experience as they tried to get off the street and addressed the following research question: “How have youth experienced trying to get off the street: what has helped and hindered?” Twenty youth, aged 19-24 years of age, living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada who have spent time living on the street were interviewed using Flanagan’s (1954) Critical Incident Technique. The qualitative analysis of the interviews identified 259 critical incidents, forming nine helping categories and six hindering categories when youth tried to leave the streets. The nine helping categories included: (1) Taking Responsibility, (2) Engaging in Constructive Activities, (3) Friends and Family Support, (4) Changing Drug and Alcohol Use, (5) Support from Professional Organizations, (6) Disillusionment of Street Life, (7) Dreams and Hope for a Different Future, (8) Income Assistance and (9) Leaving Negative Influences Behind. The six hindering categories were: (1) Drugs and Alcohol, (2) Emotional Struggles, (3) Lack of Support, (4) Enjoyment of Homelessness, (5) Limited Formal Education, Life Skills and Employment and (6) Income Assistance Difficulties. The results from this study are discussed in relation to implications for theory, practice and future research.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Originally presented as Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 272-289).

Originally presented as Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 272-289).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / "Workshop report." Two maps inserted in pockets. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-102).

Printed form of author's Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1935. / "Select bibliography": p. 257-259.

L’enjeu et la motivation de cette recherche est de rendre une dignité théorique à toutes ces pratiques qui revendiquent une appropriation, ne serait-ce que exclusivement sémiotique, de l’espace urbain. En consonance avec la démarche de Michel De Certeau, même le concept d’art a été analysé en tant que forme d’expression quotidienne. La street art a été interrogée en tant que pratique de traversée de l’espace et en tant que style de spatialisation : le produit c’est toujours un certain effet-espace qui sous-tend un certain effet de présence. L’exigence de ce travail c’était de faire un portrait de la ville à partir de micros narrations créatives qui la racontent comme par exemple l’intervention de Banksy sur la West Bank Barrier en Palestine, les inscriptions des pixadores brésiliens, les traversées des traceurs du Parkour, et les portraits affichés par JR. La street art c’est une narration possible de la ville, qui, comme un tatou sur la peau, en racontent les moments difficiles, en célèbrent les éléments d’identification, en souvient l’histoire (même celle des villes lointaines) dans une dialectique continue entre soi et Autre. D’un point de vue méthodologique, nous sommes partis de l’analyse des cas pour interroger certaines problématiques sémiotiques à l’aide de la réflexion sur les interactions et les styles de vie d’Éric Landowski, celle sur les pratiques et les formes de vie de Jacques Fontanille et celle sur l’ethno-sémiotique de Francesco Marsciani. L’analyse du phénomène a été nourri par la contribution des autres sciences sociales ayant déjà réfléchi sur l’espace et sa représentation artistique, et tout particulièrement l’anthropologie. / The issue and the motivation of this research is to give a theoretical dignity to all these practices that claim an appropriation of the urban space, even out of its semiotic meaning. In consonance with Michel De Certeau approach, even the concept of art has been analyzed as an everyday form of expression. The street art has been examined either as a space-crossing practice either as a style of spatialization: the altogether product is a space-effect which underlies a certain effect of presence. The goal of this work is to obtain a portrait of the city from a series of creative micro-narrations that illustrate it, as, for example, Banksy’s intervention on the West Bank Barrier in Palestine, the inscriptions of the Brazilian pixadores, Parkour tracers’ city crossings, the portraits posted up in the city by JR. The street art is a possible way of narration of the city, as a tattoo on the skin, it tells the hard moments, celebrates the identification elements, recollects the history (even for the far cities) with a continuous dialogue between itself and the Other. From a methodological point of view, we started from case analyses to question certain semiotic issues with the help of Eric Landowski’s thoughts about interactions and lifestyles, Jacques Fontanille’s ones about life practices and forms, Francesco Marsciani’s reflections on ethno-semiotics. The analysis of the phenomenon has been enriched by the contribution of other social sciences which had already pondered on the concept of space and its artistic representation, anthropology among the others.