Routledge Handbook of Childhood Studies and Global Development

This Routledge Handbook of Childhood Studies and Global Development explores how global development agendas and economic development influence children’s lives. It demonstrates that children are not only the frequent targets or objects of development but that they also shape and influence processes of development and social change in diverse and meaningful ways.

The handbook makes the case for the importance of placing children at the heart of development
debates, examining the complex social, historical, cultural, economic, epidemiological, ecological, geopolitical, and institutional processes transforming what it means to be young in the world today. Through reports on field research as well as a critical engagement with theories in development studies and childhood studies, contributions unravel the structural connections of global development processes as they relate to children’s life worlds. They tease out and tease apart how global developmental processes influence children’s lives, how children inform and shape development, why it is important to keep children at the centre of debates linked to development and socio- cultural change, and ways of engaging children in development research, policies and practices.

Showcasing research from both established scholars and early career researchers, and with particular prominence given to the work of authors from the global south, this handbook will be an essential reference for policymakers, practitioners, and for researchers and students across childhood studies, education, geography, sociology, and international development.

Tatek Abebe is a Professor of Childhood Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, where he teaches postgraduate courses on cultural epistemologies of childhood, development, global south childhoods and youth, participatory methodologies and ethics. His ethnographic research examines how young people are affected by and shape the political-economic environment they inhabit, with an emphasis on their activism, inter-generational relationships, care, livelihoods, labouring and learning.

Anandini Dar is Associate Professor at the School of Liberal Studies, BML Munjal University (BMU). She is the co-founder and co-convener of the Critical Childhoods and Youth Studies Collective (CCYSC), and serves as the advisory board member of The Childism Institute, at the Rutgers University, USA. She also serves on the international editorial board of the journal Children’s Geographies, Taylor & Francis, and is the Series Editor of Studies in Childhood and Youth for Palgrave Macmillan. Dr. Dar’s areas of research intersect childhood studies, development studies, sociology, education, and feminist studies. She has published on the topics of children’s rights, politics, migration, de-colonialism, and youth.

Karen Wells is a Professor of International Development and Childhood Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She has over twenty years of experience in research on the intersection between international political economy and socio-cultural fields in the formation of childhood. She has published widely on this research.