Iranian Journal Of Antheropology

Iranian Journal Of Antheropology

Fragile Disciplinary-Punitive Welfare in Iran: The Logic of Governance in Dealing with Street-Working Children

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Reihaneh Saremi 1
Pooya Alaedini 2
Mojgan Taheri Tafti 3
1 Phd Candidate in Social Welfare, Department of Social Planning, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
2 Professor, Department of Social Planning, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
3 Associate Professor, School of Urban Planning, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/jasi.2026.2094992.1654
Abstract
This study examines the logic of governance embedded in social policies addressing street-working children in Iran. Although child labour is commonly approached through poverty, vulnerability, or protection, less attention has been paid to how policy discourse defines the child as a particular subject and how supportive interventions become connected to discipline and punishment. The study asks how these policies construct a policy subject and stabilize this construction through discursive and disciplinary mechanisms. The theoretical framework combines Michel Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and discipline with Loïc Wacquant’s analysis of the relationship between welfare and punishment. The research uses a qualitative case study of Tehran. Data were collected during 2021–2023 through policy and legal documents, semi-structured interviews with policy and implementation actors, social workers, non-governmental organizations, working children and their mothers, and field observations in service centres and urban spaces. Data were analysed through Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. Findings show that the street-working child is constructed as a victim in need of rescue, while the family is simultaneously constituted as a site of risk and intervention. Rescue is therefore conditional on behavioural change, cooperation, and acceptance of disciplinary programmes. Empowerment is redefined as moral and pedagogical training rather than an expansion of economic power, shifting explanations of poverty toward individual skills, financial management, and family culture. Ambiguous definitions create interpretive discretion for frontline workers and allow children to move between welfare, protective, and penal pathways. Biometric identification, introduced ostensibly to improve counting, enables the recording and tracking of repeated street presence, facilitating intensified intervention and custody deprivation. Non-governmental organizations occupy a paradoxical position: they may criticize police violence while simultaneously implementing identification, registration, and soft disciplinary practices. The study conceptualizes this configuration as fragile disciplinary-punitive welfare, in which support, discipline, and punishment form a continuum whose effectiveness is limited by persistent resistance.
Keywords
Discursive subjectification
Empowerment
Family-centeredness
Fragile disciplinary-punitive welfare
Street-working children
Subjects
 
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Iranian Journal Of Antheropology
Volume 23, Issue 42 - Serial Number 42
September 2026
Pages 265-289