Global Childhoods in International Perspective: Universality, Diversity and Inequalities

Book excerpt: 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.