Agency does not mean freedom. Cape Verdean street children and the politics of children's agency

Abstract At a time when children and youth are heralded by scholars and international organisations alike as active agents in the construction of their own lives and as individuals with participatory rights, I propose in this article, based on my fieldwork on street children and child protection policies in Cape Verde, an account of the interplay between children and youth and social interventions, exploring the tension between calls for agency and the right to autonomy at the theoretical level and enduring disciplinary ideas about child protection and rehabilitation. Keywords: street childrenCape Verdesocial interventionagency Acknowledgments Research funding was provided by the Portuguese FCT – Science and Technology Foundation through post-doctoral scholarship SFRH/BPD/27069/2006. Language proofing of this text was also funded by…