Global crises of childhood: rights, justice and the unchildlike child

Abstract

This paper traces how the notion of childhood changes as part of other social transformations. Globalization and the disillusion of public and private spheres are related to contemporary crises of childhood. Visible working children and child violence are highlighted as examples of unchildlike behaviour that suggests indeterminacy in the constitution of the global child. Issues of children's rights and new forms of justice are raised as potentially liberatory ways of viewing the crisis.