Karen Wells 
Childhood in a Global Perspective 

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.

Table of Content

1. Childhood in a Global Context

2. Policy and Practice

3. Race, Class and Gender

4. Families

5. School and Work

6. Play


7. Politics

8. War

9. Juvenile Justice

10. Migration
11. Rescuing Children and Children’s Rights

About the author

Karen Wells is Reader in International Development and Childhood Studies at Birkbeck, University of London.