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This popular book provides a compelling introduction to thinking about childhood in rigorous and critical ways. Karen Wells offers a unique global perspective on children's lives, showing how the notion of childhood varies widely and is continuously being radically re-shaped.
Taking children seriously as active participants in society, the book explores key social issues such as how children are constituted as raced, classed and gendered subjects; how school and work operate as sites for the governing of childhood; and how children both shape and are shaped by politics, culture and the economy. Taking an engaging historical and comparative approach, the book discusses wide-ranging topics including children's rights, the family, play, labour, migration and trafficking. In addition to updated literature throughout, this revised third edition includes extensive new material on children's activism, politics and war, and a whole new chapter on juvenile justice.
The book will continue to be of great value to students and scholars in the fields of sociology, geography, social policy and development studies. It will also be a valuable companion to practitioners whose work involves or impacts children, as well as to anyone interested in childhood in the contemporary world.
List of contents
1. Childhood in a Global Context
2. Policy and Practice
3. Race, Class and Gender
4. Families
5. School and Work
6. Play
7. Politics
8. War
9. Juvenile Justice
10. Migration 11. Rescuing Children and Children's Rights
About the author
Karen Wells is Reader in International Development and Childhood Studies at Birkbeck, University of London.
Summary
This popular book provides a compelling introduction to thinking about childhood in rigorous and critical ways. Karen Wells offers a unique global perspective on children's lives, showing how the notion of childhood varies widely and is continuously being radically re-shaped.
Taking children seriously as active participants in society, the book explores key social issues such as how children are constituted as raced, classed and gendered subjects; how school and work operate as sites for the governing of childhood; and how children both shape and are shaped by politics, culture and the economy. Taking an engaging historical and comparative approach, the book discusses wide-ranging topics including children's rights, the family, play, labour, migration and trafficking. In addition to updated literature throughout, this revised third edition includes extensive new material on children's activism, politics and war, and a whole new chapter on juvenile justice.
The book will continue to be of great value to students and scholars in the fields of sociology, geography, social policy and development studies. It will also be a valuable companion to practitioners whose work involves or impacts children, as well as to anyone interested in childhood in the contemporary world.
Report
"This refreshed third edition by Karen Wells is engagingly written, drawing on a wide range of international literature on childhood. Lucidly presented, with a clear-eyed focus on key debates surrounding childhood, the summaries and further reading make it a 'must read' student text for anyone with an interest in Childhood Studies."
Anoop Nayak, Professor in Social & Cultural Geography, Newcastle University, UK.
"Childhood in a Global Perspective offers a superb analysis of the structural forces and everyday practices that shape childhood today. Linking the processes of neoliberal globalization to the lived experiences of children worldwide, the book deftly highlights the impact of uneven development and social inequity on society's most vulnerable population."
Katharyne Mitchell, University of California, Santa Cruz
