This title looks at challenging prejudices about the women and
children who beg in Ecuadorian cities. In 1992, Calhuasi, an
isolated Andean town, got its first road. Newly connected to
Ecuador's large cities, Calhuasi experienced rapid social-spatial
change, which Kate Swanson richly describes in ""Begging as a Path
to Progress"". Based on nineteen months of fieldwork, Swanson's
study pays particular attention to the ideas and practices
surrounding youth. While begging seems to be inconsistent with - or
even an affront to - ideas about childhood in the developed world,
Swanson demonstrates that the majority of income earned from
begging goes toward funding Ecuadorian children's educations in
hopes of securing more prosperous futures. Examining beggars'
organized migration networks, as well as the degree to which
children can express agency and fulfill personal ambitions through
begging, Swanson argues that Calhuasi's beggars are capable of
canny engagement with the forces of change. She also shows how
frequent movement between rural and urban Ecuador has altered both,
masculinizing the countryside and complicating the Ecuadorian
conflation of whiteness and cities. Finally, her study unpacks
ongoing conflicts over programs to 'clean up' Quito and other major
cities, noting that revanchist efforts have had multiple effects -
spurring more dangerous transnational migration, for example, while
also providing some women and children with tourist-friendly local
spaces in which to sell a notion of Andean authenticity.
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