Rights and Wrongs of Children's Work

"Bourdillon and colleagues analyze the problems, benefits, appropriate interventions, culture, and policies related to children's work with a respect for the individual rights of the children involved. Recommended." * Choice * "While this book is not the first to challenge conventional thinking on children's work, it is comprehensive in its analysis and bold in its call for change." * Comparative Education Review * "In Rights and Wrongs of Children's Work, the authors provide us with a definitive and balanced examination of why it is that the majority of the world's children's work for a living. This is an excellent book, which has clearly been designed to engage both the novice and expert. The clarity of reflective thought in this book is particularly impressive and reassuring." * Contemporary Sociology * "Bourdillon and colleagues analyze the problems, benefits, appropriate interventions, culture, and policies related to children's work with a respect for the individual rights of the children involved. Recommended." * Choice * "While this book is not the first to challenge conventional thinking on children's work, it is comprehensive in its analysis and bold in its call for change." * Comparative Education Review * "In Rights and Wrongs of Children's Work, the authors provide us with a definitive and balanced examination of why it is that the majority of the world's children's work for a living. This is an excellent book, which has clearly been designed to engage both the novice and expert. The clarity of reflective thought in this book is particularly impressive and reassuring." * Contemporary Sociology *

MICHAEL F. C. BOURDILLON is a professor emeritus in the department of sociology at the University of Zimbabwe. He has worked with street children in Harare, and with working children regionally and internationally, and is the author and editor of several books including Earning a Life: Working Children in Zimbabwe. DEBORAH LEVISON, an economist and demographer, is a professor at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Much of her research focuses on third world children's work and schooling in the context of the household. WILLIAM E. MYERS is retired from the United Nations, where he addressed child work issues with UNICEF and the ILO. He is currently an associate in the department of human and community development at the University of California, Davis. BEN WHITE is a professor of rural sociology at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, and a professor in social sciences at the University of Amsterdam. His books and edited volumes include Child Labour: Policy Options.

Preface Acknowledgments List of Figures and Tables List of Acronyms 1. Raising Questions, Questioning the Answers "When I was fired, I cried for two weeks": How Intervention Went Wrong in Morocco's Garment Industry Whose Interests? Ways of Thinking Children's Rights Knowledge, Understanding, and Information 2. Work That Children Do What Is Children's Work? What Children Say about Why They Work Concluding Comment 3. Children's Work in Historical and Comparative Perspective Child Labor and the Industrial Revolution in Britain around the Nineteenth Century Child Work, Education, and Interventions in Asia and Africa: Examples from Indonesia and Zimbabwe Children, Work, and Education in Communist Revolutions and Post-Communist Transitions International Standards and Trends in Interventions 4. Child Work and Poverty: A Tangled Relationship What Is Poverty? Defining and Measuring Labor-Force Work Many Poor Children Do Not Work for Pay Labor Supply and Labor Demand General Patterns Children's Earnings: How Much, and Who Gets Them? Are Children Working Instead of Adults, or Undermining Adult Wages? Conditional Cash Transfers as Compensation for School Enrollment Is Child Work a Cultural Phenomenon Rather Than an Economic Necessity? The Effects of Child Work on Poverty Dynamics: How Learning Matters Does Poverty Cause Child Work? 5. Work in Children's Development Framing the Issue The Idea of Human "Development in Social Science Concluding Observations 6. Education, School, and Work "Earn-and-Learn": Tea Estates in Zimbabwe Children's Perceptions The Right to Education School as Work Problems with Schools Can School Mix with Work? Combining Labor-Force Work with School Learning through Work Conclusion 7. Children Acting for Themselves Agency of Children Street Children Independent Migration Organizations of Working Children Child Participation in Making Decisions 8. Assessing Harm against Benefits Child Domestic Work: Pros and Cons A Continuum of Harm and Benefit Intolerable Forms and Conditions of Work Assessing Hazardous Work Weighing Harm against Benefits A Note on Exploitation What Does This Mean in Practice? 9. The Politics of International Intervention The Case of Child Garment Workers in Bangladesh: Tragedy or Scandal? Stitching Footballs in Sialkot What Should Be Learned from These Experiences? Promoting and Protecting the Interests of Children Who Work: A Case in Egypt Concluding Thoughts 10. Policies and Interventions: What Should They Achieve, and How? Starting Points Principles Practice Notes References Index