Global Childhoods
Issues and Debates
- Kate Cregan - Monash University, Australia
- Denise Cuthbert - RMIT University, Australia
"An exciting and engagingly written book. The case studies are intriguing and the discussion of previous theories impeccable."
- Dr. Heather Montgomery, The Open University
- Professor Joy Damousi, University of Melbourne
Global Childhoods draws on the authors’ interdisciplinary backgrounds and original research in the fields of embodiment, theorisations of childhood, children's policy, child placement and adoption, and family formation. The book critically demonstrates how following from the modern construction of childhood which emerged unevenly from the late eighteenth century, the twentieth century saw the emergence of the conception of the normative global child, a figure finally enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The book offers a wide-ranging critical analysis of approaches to children and childhood across the social sciences. Through stimulating case studies which include the experiences of child soldiers, orphans, forced child migrants, and children and biomedicine, Cregan and Cuthbert critically test the notion of the ‘global child’ against the lived experiences of children around the globe.
Kate Cregan and Denise Cuthbert draw on and contributes to debates on children and the idea of the child in a wide range of disciplines: sociology, anthropology, education, children's studies, cultural studies, history, psychology, law and development studies. In its historical coverage of the rise of the concepts of the child and the global child, its critical engagement with the theorisation of childhood, and its detailed case studies, the book is essential reading for the study of children and childhood.
An interesting insightful read for the learners.
interesting and relevant issues covered in the book.
Used as discussion in our parenting session and child development modules
This book is set out well with excellent case studies as examples. It is engaging and accessible to students at all levels of study.
A critical debate on global childhoods. This text engenders analysis on the construction of childhood and how children live within our modern world. A very useful addition to the discourse of the global child.
key issues and debate as to what childhood is promote questions and high order thinking. I will use this for my level 4 planning.
This extremely thought provoking book challenges the reader's idea of childhood by examining childhood across different social and political divides. It is somewhat beyond the scope of the course I deliver but would make for good extension reading.
This is a very well structured book with a clear social scientific perspective on children and childhood. It provides theoretical perspectives on childhood in a clear way, and the empirical examples are interesting and match the theoretical approaches. I also really like the summaries in the beginning of each chapter.
For the BA (Hons) Child Development and Education this book is being recommended as essential reading. The content of this book is excellent for the modules 'Different Childhoods' and 'Global Education' and my students have benefitted from the arguments, research and theories set out in this superb book.
A good text that introduces some of the key terms, perspectives and conventions internationally.
Sage College Publishing
