Working to be Someone: Child Focused Research and Practice with Working Children

"Working to be Someone" presents an overview of worldwide research on working children that takes the children's own points of view of their work into account. It aims to highlight and discuss children's employment from a point of view that amplifies their concern rather than disengaging them from adult constructed arguments about whether or not they should be allowed to work. This book brings together empirical and theoretical contributions by internationally renowned researchers who are committed to a 'subject-orientated' approach together with views and observations of activists from organisations that either work with child labour or support working children's movements. The chapters examine the traditionally widespread care and domestic work carried out by children; discuss localized explorations of working children and consider work as a means for children to contribute economically to the family. The contributors also discuss children's movements and organisations in Africa, Asia and South America that claim work as a necessity for survival as well as a key to children's own agency and citizenship.This book will be a key text for both academics and social work practitioners to reevaluate the ideology of an ideal childhood and understand the complex phenomenon of working children.