Global Childhoods in International Perspective: Universality, Diversity and Inequalities

A timely and comprehensive reading of the complexities of the local and global scenarios of contemporary childhood.

Dr. Ana Vergara, Associate Professor, Universidad de Santiago, Chile.

Baraldi and Rabello de Castro have edited a theoretically sophisticated text which explores the hegemony of the affluent world with respect to global policy and practice on children and childhood. There is an impressive range of country based empirical research on themes that link epistemology, age, agency and identity to the contemporary globalisation of childhood.

Dr Michael Wyness, Reader, Centre for Education Studies, University of Warwick.

This collection by Baraldi and Rabello de Castro brings together key thinkers on the sociological study of childhood from across the continents of the globe. Thereby, the book offers a rich cornucopia of ideas and analyses from a diverse and global set of academics. Issues under scrutiny include processes of globalisation, children’s identity formation, migration, poverty, sexual abuse, education and health. The collection explores the dilemma of the universality of children’s experiences against the significance of context, and the importance to recognise the diversity of childhoods. The editors bring together the range of contributions through a coherent set of commentaries. This collection is an urgent read for those interested in the lives lived by children across the world and for professionals in health, education, psychology and social work. Reading this will expand your conceptual horizons and revisit afresh the ways we understand children.

Introduction by Claudio Baraldi & Lucia Rabello De Castro Section 1. Problematizing Universality, Diversity and Inequalities in Global Childhoods Chapter 1. Roots and problems of universalism: the concept of children's agency by Claudio Baraldi Chapter 2. Age Epistemology and the Politics of Age by Lucia Rabello De Castro Chapter 3. Inequalities in French Speaking and Anglo-Saxon Childhood Sociologies by Regine Sirota Section 2. Issues of Children's Agency in Global Childhoods Chapter 4. Globalization, school and redefinition of childhood in Burkina Faso by Isabelle Danic Chapter 5. Examining Child Mobility and Transport in South Africa. Challenges for Theory and Practice by Sharmla Rama Chapter 6. The limits of healthism: Understanding children's conceptions of health by Tobia Fattore Section 3. Identities and social transformation in global childhoods Chapter 7. Success - a `leitmotiv' of Kyrgyz childhoods by Doris Buhler-Niederberger Chapter 8. Child Abuse and Neglect in India. Locating child abuse in fractured Indian families through children's lenses by Vinod Chandra Chapter 9. Identity and Social Integration among the Children of African Immigrants in France by Loretta Bass Chapter 10. Fluctuating Social Class Mobility of Filipino Migrant Children in France and in Italy by Asuncion Freznoza-Flot & Itaru Nagasaka