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Child Labour’s Global Past, 1650-2000

by Kristoffel Lieten (Volume editor) Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk (Volume editor)
©2011 Edited Collection 716 Pages

Summary

Historiography of child labour has often been characterized by strong biases, leading to an overemphasis on the aberrations of factory work as well as to the stereotyping of child work, with industrializing England as the dominant model. This collection of articles offers a global perspective, including both national and comparative case studies which cover all continents and thus overcomes such biases in child labour history. It focuses on various sectors of the economy: industrial work is highlighted and so are the important activities of children in agriculture. Furthermore, Child Labour’s Global Past, 1650-2000 is intended to give a long-term historical perspective, in covering the importance of children’s work in pre-industrial and industrial societies, both in colonial and non- or post-colonial settings.
A long-term global approach to the history of child labour is desirable. As child labour was – and still is – a social phenomenon which can only be properly understood in its historical context, the varying historical experiences over the world can not only enlighten us about the specific function of child labour, but also about its causes, and therewith about possible solutions of child labour today.

Details

Pages
716
Publication Year
2011
ISBN (PDF)
9783035102185
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783034305174
DOI
10.3726/978-3-0351-0218-5
Language
English
Publication date
2011 (August)
Keywords
agriculture industrial work causes solutions
Published
Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2011. 714 pp., num. ill., tables and graphs

Biographical notes

Kristoffel Lieten (Volume editor) Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk (Volume editor)

Kristoffel Lieten (1946) is Professor of Child Labour Studies at the University of Amsterdam and at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. He is also the Director of the Institute for Research on Working Children (IREWOC) in Leiden, Netherlands. Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk (1975) studied social and economic history in Utrecht. She is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the International Institute of Social History. She has published several articles on the history of women’s and children’s work from 1600-1900.

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Title: Child Labour’s Global Past, 1650-2000