A “global” childhood? Confronting concepts and reality

1. A “global” childhood? Confronting concepts and reality IE 2B4 Children and Family in National and International Context 2009-2010 Clotilde Giner

2. Additional References • Fleer, M, Hedegaard M and J. Tudge, eds. (2009) Childhood studies and the impact of globalization: policies and practices at global and local levels, Volume 2009 of World year book of education, Routledge • Prout, A (2005) The future of childhood: towards the interdisciplinary study of children (Chapter 1: Changing childhood in a globalizing world)

3. Overall introduction • Two-week examination of the relationships between globalisation and childhood: 1st week: Confronting ideals of global childhood with reality 2nd week: Considering the effects of globalisation on children’s lives nationally and internationally Objective: Gain an awareness of how childhoods are changing from a global perspective

4. Outline • The image of the « global » child and attempts to export it globally • Uneven distribution of ideal childhood across the world: the diversity of children’s experiences • Children as social actors • Towards a « global-local » image of childhood

5. The global appeal of children (Pupavac 2001) • Children as a priority category: • 1/3 of the global population (1/2 in developing countries) • Serious implications for public services and for the future • Children as ‘the source of the last remaining […] primary relationship’ (Beck 1992: 118) • In the North: the emotionally priceless child (Zelizer 1985)

6. Defining childhood • Biological development • Childhood as a category fixed by social practices of custom and by law: • Age 18 = universal threshold, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child • This threshold has no social meaning in many parts of the world  The child as a social construct

7. Childhood as a social construct • Philippe Ariès’ Centuries of Childhood (1962): “In medieval societies the idea of childhood did not exist” (Ariès 1962: 125) • Emergence in Europe of childhood as a separate stage between 15th and 18th century • Gradual spread through all social classes • Stephens (1995): “The particular form of modern childhood is socially and historically specific”

8. Traditional representations of childhood in the North • Characteristics - (sexual) Innocence, vulnerability - Emotional and financial dependency on the family • Activities • Education and schooling • Play Childhood as time of innocence, free of cares and responsibility Separation from the adult world

9. Global spread of norms about childhood • A Northern construct exported to the South ? (Boyden 1997) • Innocent child victim vs. Young deviant (street children (Glauser 1997)) • Universal system of entitlement based on these norms • A construct informing both: • Human rights legislation at the international level • Welfare and education programmes at the national level

10. A global children rights’ movement: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child • Universal system of rights for the child based on Western-based norms of childhood • The UNCRC as the product of Western States? (Van Bueren 1995) • Universal ratification: a single conception of childhood cutting across 190 countries… • …or a text that is ambiguous enough to give space to local interpretation? • A holistic and complex picture of childhood

11. Limits of a single universal definition • Representation of childhood under crisis: - Ideal childhood unevenly distributed across the world - Vast disparities in the social and economic conditions of children’s lives • Importance of understanding the social, economic, political and cultural context of childhood

12. 1 billion children live in poverty: 1 in 2 children in the world Unicef 2006

13. Unicef 2006

14. Under-five mortality rankings (2004) Most of these countries have experienced major armed conflicts since 1999 Countries suffering from poor governance, weak institutions with high levels of corruption, political instability and weak rule of law Unicef 2006

15. A even greater level of diversity • Most statistics are at the national level - showing diversity between countries • However, there are usually significant disparities in child well-being and development across geographical (rural/urban), ethnic and gender axes within countries. (Unicef 2006)

16. Inequalities in industrialised countries • High levels of child poverty: • In the 30 OECD countries, around 12% of all children were at risk of poverty in the mid 2000s • One in three UK children live in poverty today: that’s over 4 million children.  • A quarter of children in London live in households where no one is working • Non-native children are found to be particularly disadvantaged at school

17. Children as social actors (Prout 2005) • Children as social actors: The common characteristics of children worldwide? • Children’s agency as a key contributor to their development • Role within the family • Role in economic growth and poverty reduction • Instances of denial of children’s agency

18. Towards a better understanding of “global-local childhoods” • “A wholeness approach”: considering childhood and children in interdependent relation to their activities, institutional practices, and societal conditions (Fleer, Hedegaard and Tudge 2009) • Understanding children in their everyday activities in local communities • Understanding children as sharing global aspects of childhood

19. “Local, hybridised notions of childhood” (Kesby et al 2006) • Little knowledge of how childhoods are constructed locally • Need to explore other dimensions of childhood: tendency to define them by what they aren’t rather than by what they are • e.g. Exploration of young peoples’ sexual health and child household headship in Zimbabwe (Kesby et al. 2006)

20. Seminar • Discussion in groups of individualchild case-studies • Objective: Lookingat the diversity of children’slives as well as common patterns amongchildren • Look atchildren’sexperiences and lives: • Type of activities • Children as social actors (childrenexertingagency…) • Familyrelationships and social networks • Influence of the social and politicalcontext • Impact of the local environment, gender, race, social origin… • Feelings and hopes for the future