2.2 History of childhood: a state of the art

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Del curso dictado por University of Geneva

Children's Human Rights - An Interdisciplinary Introduction

574 calificaciones

University of Geneva

Children's Human Rights - An Interdisciplinary Introduction

574 calificaciones

Drawing on the contributions of several academic disciplines including law, psychology, sociology, history, educational and health sciences, economy and anthropology, an interdisciplinary approach guides the student into a selection of critical issues concerning children’s rights. Participants will gain insight relative to the development of this specific human rights category, as well as to the evolution of the challenges faced by children over time and society’s efforts to respond. Successful international strategies and programs promoting children’s rights will be highlighted, as well as the role of key actors involved in international organizations working in this field. This open online course provides an overview of the most important features of children’s human rights. A central portion of the MOOC will consist of a presentation of the international and regional standards on children’s rights and the related international and regional judicial and quasi-judicial bodies designed to ensure their implementation. No prerequisites or specific background is required to register for this MOOC. The course is conceived as an introductory level program, but participants, who wish to deepen their knowledge in the field of children’s rights, or already have some prior knowledge, will have access to additional reading material on a weekly basis. Participants who successfully complete the class activities and final assessment may request for a paid certificate of accomplishment signed by the Instructor and the main professors responsible for the program. However, no credits are awarded. The course consists of seven topical modules distributed on 4 weeks. English is the only language of instruction.

De la lección

The history of children’s rights in the context of human rights

This module provides an overview of the evolution of children's rights before the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Based on a chronological approach, it is a comprehensive social and cultural history of children's rights, of the way they developed over the course of the last centuries. While not building on a strict history of diplomatic relations, this module provides an international perspective on this evolution. It aims to underline the multiplicity of actors, networks and organizations involved in the defense and promotion of children's rights, over time. Also, it emphasizes crucial moments of this history, such as the adoption of international legal instruments on the rights of the child, the two World Wars, etc. This module will nonetheless challenge common understandings of the history of children's rights. For instance, instead of describing it as a linear success story, it will highlight progress as well as failures. Also, the idea that the rights of the child are a 20th Century invention will be balanced. By doing so, we aim to provide a complex understanding of the history of children's rights and detailed contexts for the topics they cover (e.g. child labor, juvenile justice, etc.) and that will be studied later in this MOOC.

2.1 Introduction3:30

2.2 History of childhood: a state of the art7:21

2.3 Children and Health from the Renaissance to the Revolution4:39

2.4 Children during the industrial revolution7:35

Conoce a los instructores

Roberta Ruggiero
Dr
Center for Children's Rights Studies
Philip D. Jaffé
Professor
Center for Children's Rights Studies
Jean Zermatten
Dr. h. c.
Center for Children's Rights Studies and International Institute for Children's Rights

[MUSIC]

There are few

cases in history where the birth of a can be precisely dated.

The history of childhood is one of these exceptions.

Indeed, this specific field of restorical interest was born in 1960 with

the publication of the famous book, the French historian Phillippe Aries,

Centuries of Childhood, A Social History of Family Life.

True, even before this date, a fair amount of research had already been

led by historical demographers after World War II.

Biological structures of everyday life in societies.

Among other features, they pointed out the mother of the nuclear family

already prevailed back in the 17th century.

Due to the high infant mortality rates

Which of course limited the size of the families.

But this demographic approach made it difficult to grasp exactly what will

happen within Within these families, in terms of emotional relationship.

Idea was to find all the all the archives,

such as family archives and so on.

In order to track down precisely the emergence of what he called

Now, how could you translate this idea?

You could translate it as a sense of a feeling about childhood.

What he really meant by this expression is the will to consider the child

as a specific being with specific need,

requiring specific care, specific measures of protection.

According to Philip it was not until

the 17th century that regime societies recognized and

valued childhood.

As a consequence of this rather late discovery of childhood as

put it Western societies would from then on develop a whole new range of attitudes,

discourses, and institutions, specifically dedicated and directed to children.

These institutions were intended to cater to their specific needs, for

example, in terms of education.

Now Arya's conclusions arose much controversies and criticisms.

As a result, many historians have since then discovered or used various

archives in order to contest or on the contrary to validate his opinions

Anyway, no doubt the history of as a field of research was directly

fed by such controversies, such debates, before becoming a separate

discipline of its own right, something like 30 years ago.

Philip Arya's main legacy was not only to draw attention to an area of research so

far, barely studied.

He also contributed to validate the idea.

The chance within youth are no timeless categories.

Rather These are categories which are socially constructed

which means they change and evolve over time.

And if the representations underlying the perceptions of childhood and youth evolve

over decades or over centuries Then of course institutions or

policies that embodied these very ideas change as well.

Historians have then been prone to delve into the archives to try to understand

precisely how childhood perceptions have changed over the centuries.

And also, of course, what were the effects of these changes in terms of new policies,

new institutions, new actors taking care of children and youth.

This is particularly true with a dominant feature of contemporary politics,

that of state intervention.

Historians have dedicated many rich case studies to understand how and

when states did make it a priority to safe guard,

manage, control, and protect childhood.

Other result is true of child who have now come of age.

Case studies and

scholarly works do abound, relating to all categories of children and youth.

Even in terms of age, in terms of gender,

in terms of social class, in term of ethnic origin.

Their life courses have been duly explored, such as conditions of birth.

Family ties, schooling, child labor and so on.

And also, unconventional or

exceptional children have also been widely considered and widely explored,

as well as the special institutions which were entrusted with their care.

Such as, for example, institutions for disabled children, orphans,

or also young offenders, girls and boys.

More recently, the life of children in the globalized world has also come to light,

thanks to studies that strive to measure the impact of globalization process on

the lives Of younger generations.

Particularly of course in recent decades.

Children may have been negatively affected by globalization.

For example by colonization or migrations.

But they may also have been positively impacted.

For example By the modelization in favor of human rights, devices

specific to children, for example, ILO campaigns against child labor.

Finally, we can say that history of childhood appear as a quite dynamic

field of research.

And yet Some gray areas still remain.

The most intriguing of them would be the difficulty to take stock of children's

voices and feelings about their own experiences.

Indeed the history of childhood as we do it today,

still remains to use the words Of the British historian Harry Hendrick,

the history of what adults had thought about and done to children.

Let us hope that someday somehow historians will finally find out

how to make these distant voices of children heard.

This will further enrich Is already well known, centuries of childhood.

[MUSIC]

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