Global Childhoods in International Perspective: Universality, Diversity and Inequalities

The book gathers a wide spectrum of contributors from Europe, the U.S., South Asia, South Africa and Latin America, who, attuned with present dilemmas in the area of childhood studies, discuss some key theoretical and empirical aspects of child scholarship, such as identity, child wellbeing, child mobility and migration, intergenerational relationships and child abuse.

Global Childhoods in International Perspective gathers a wide spectrum of contributors from Europe, the U.S., South Asia, South Africa and Latin America, who, attuned with present dilemmas in the area of childhood studies, discuss some key theoretical and empirical aspects of child scholarship, such as identity, child wellbeing, child mobility and migration, intergenerational relationships and child abuse. Through these expert contributions, the book explores the many ways in which the relationship between universality and particularities of childhood plays an important role in describing global childhoods.

The book highlights childhood as a cross-cutting issue in global sociology with chapters on globalization and schooling in Burkina Faso, child abuse and neglect in India, identity and integration among children of African immigrants in France, social class mobility of Filipino migrant children in Italy and France, and an investigation into Kyrgyz childhoods.

Ideal reading for researchers, practitioners and students interested in both childhood studies and the other areas including community research, sociology of education, social stratification, and the sociology of migration.

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 Bühler-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