Author Description

This book aims to fill an important gap in the child labour literature by bringing together a selection of policy perspectives on child labour issues by authors who stand at the forefront of research and/or policy analysis in the field. Many of the contributions comment on the changing dynamics of discourse on childhood, child work, education and the relations between them. In academic circles, new perspectives view children not as passive recipients of experience and 'socialization' but as more active participants and contributors to their own development and social worlds. These ideas have far-reaching implications for our understanding of children's competences, rights, responsibilities and needs, and their (potential) sources of resilience in the face of risk, adversity and abuse. Apart from stimulating a more realistic debate on the issue of 'child labour' world-wide, this volume contributes to the process of more empirically grounded research that will bring into the open the many social, economic and psychological aspects that are associated with children when they get involved in whatever form of work.