This popular book provides a compelling introduction to thinking about
childhood in rigorous and critical ways. Karen Wells offers a unique
global perspective on children's lives, showing how the notion of
childhood varies widely and is continuously being radically re-shaped.
Taking children seriously as active participants in society, the book
explores key social issues such as how children are constituted as
raced, classed and gendered subjects; how school and work operate as
sites for the governing of childhood; and how children both shape and
are shaped by politics, culture and the economy. Taking an engaging
historical and comparative approach, the book discusses wide-ranging
topics including children's rights, the family, play, labour, migration
and trafficking. In addition to updated literature throughout, this
revised third edition includes extensive new material on children's
activism, politics and war, and a whole new chapter on juvenile
justice.
The book will continue to be of great value to students and scholars in
the fields of sociology, geography, social policy and development
studies. It will also be a valuable companion to practitioners whose
work involves or impacts children, as well as to anyone interested in
childhood in the contemporary world.
