Globalization and Children: Exploring Potentials for Enhancing Opportunities in the Lives of Children and Youth
Hevener Kaufman, Natalie and Rizzini, Irene (eds.) (2002).
New York: Kluwer Plenum; 176 pages. $55.00. ISBN 0306473682.
Considering, first, that children make up a significant proportion of the population everywhere and, second, that no nation in the world is exempt from the influences of globalization, it is striking how little has been written about the impacts of globalization on children. Indeed, the very dearth of such literature is a telling indication of the marginalization of young people- simply because they are young- in today’s world whose dominant paradigm values people chiefly in terms of their contributions to economic productivity.
Globalization and Children… is thus timely and helps to direct attention to important issues largely neglected by researchers. The book is a compilation of papers based on two seminars organized by Childwatch International. It contains 13 chapters, organized into three parts, and a brief conclusion which constitutes part four. Part I offers “The Global Perspective” and proceeds from the laying out of a framework for the study of globalization, through reviews of cross-cultural and legal perspectives of globalization in relation to children and youth, to a discussion of democratization in children’s lives. Under the title “Global Trends in Children’s Lives,” Part II includes five chapters that cover family life, civic participation, the environment, the media, and developmental-ecological considerations.
Part III is entitled, “Applying the Lens of Global Change to the Actual Lives of Children.” Each of its three chapters is concerned with Latin America. The first of these offers a general treatment of the transition to democracy in this region of the world. However, the rationale for its inclusion is not clear as it does not in any way link this democratic transition to the lives of children.
Part IV consists of a very brief (2.5 pages) conclusion by the editors which recapitulates points made earlier, namely that the effects of globalization on children and youth manifest themselves in economic, cultural and political spheres and form a mix of positive as well as negative outcomes. It also re-emphasizes the importance of listening to children and respecting their views.
Although its intended audience is not clarified, taken as a whole, this book can be useful for readers seeking an introduction to selected aspects of how globalization relates to children and youth. However, the role of individual chapters is not always apparent. Some chapters deal with aspects of globalization but give no or very little attention to children (e.g., the chapters that focus on civic participation, the democratic transition in Latin America, and neo-liberal policies in Jamaica), while another chapter focuses on children’s developmental and ecological contexts, but gives minimal attention to globalization. The book’s structure is a bit arbitrary as there is significant overlap between chapters in Parts I and II that deal with aspects of democratization. The editors provide a solid introductory chapter and a concise but articulate conclusion, but in neither place do they attempt to pull together the diverse chapters in between. They do not draw out from the chapters insights that coalesce into a larger picture, nor do they reconcile divergent views (e.g., Chapter Ten paints a bleak picture of Latin American democracy that contrasts with the following chapter, which reviews positive developments in Brazil). Hence, the impression one gets is that the potential for integration of the various chapters into a truly coherent presentation is largely unfulfilled.
The depth of coverage is somewhat uneven. The chapters in Part I are the most detailed and strongest. Also well-developed is the chapter on Brazil, which would have been a good model for fellow authors to follow. In other places, opportunities to obtain useful insights are limited by the brevity of coverage in short paragraphs of sometimes just a few sentences, which merely raise a point without further discussion or connection to the next paragraph. For example, a one-sentence paragraph in the chapter on civic participation mentions a finding by Barber that “youth who participated in the Palestinian Intifada reported having grown in maturity, self-confidence, effectiveness” (86). There is no elaboration and no further source details are given. It would have been interesting to know more.
Globalization and Children… does not extend coverage to an area where young people feature prominently in relation to globalization: commercial consumption. For-profit providers of goods and services have identified children and youth as a hugely lucrative market and are heavily targeting young people as buyers of proliferating lines of fashion, music, sports equipment, and recreational merchandise. Most local governments readily support this development. Many cities, suffering loss of revenues resulting from sharp reductions in manufacturing jobs owing to financial deregulation and economic liberalization, seek to carve out new niches in the global market-place. To this end, city governments and urban planners increasingly favor “cultural development” as a preferred strategy for economic growth. Culture, in this connection, is seen very broadly and significantly includes shopping and commodified leisure pursuits. Directly and indirectly, children and youth are huge profit sources for these emerging industries of urban culture. For example, in the U.S. alone, personal spending by youth on just snacks, soft drinks, entertainment and apparel amounts to $200 billion per year. U.S. teenagers last year spent $172 billion on mobile phones, yet still lag far behind their European counterparts, among whom mobile phone ownership is even more widespread.
It is not fair perhaps to criticize the book for what it does not include. However, the absence of coverage of children and youth as participants in a global consumer culture represents a missed opportunity to examine questions about the roles of young people in relation to the prevailing goals of globalization, in particular against the background of attempts by youth to bring about alternative normative frameworks for development.
Similarly, the book also bypasses the emergence of transnational youth networks whose development has been greatly facilitated by the advances in information and communication technologies that support globalization. Along with greater awareness and implementation of human rights in general and those embodied by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in particular, there has been a strong increase in advocacy and action-oriented youth alliances that transcend national borders. This trend has sparked and reinforced interest in participatory planning and decision-making involving youth in their local communities and beyond.
Another important topic getting scarcely any coverage in Globalization and Children relates to the impacts of globalization on the health of children and youth. Observed effects include the positive outcomes of programs to reduce and eradicate childhood diseases and improve nutritional intake in many- but by no means all- countries. Negative effects include greater exposure to various forms of environmental pollution, a widespread rise in obesity rates, shocking mortality rates owing to tobacco use begun in childhood, and devastating effects of drug addiction and HIV/AIDS on children and the families and communities in which they grow up.
Regrettably, there are a number of bibliographic omissions in the book, preventing readers from following up on references to work that provokes curiosity. For example, without providing further details, Chapter 12 mentions young people in relation to attempts to reduce internecine community conflict in Jamaica, where structural adjustment policies have undermined societal traditions and eroded long-standing authority patterns (156). Warring parties apparently prioritized youth activities as a route to reduce violence, but, unfortunately, the study that is cited as the source for this observation is not listed among the references appearing at the end of this chapter. Missing as well is the reference to the one study of the effects of youth participation that was not just correlational and cross-sectional but relied on a carefully selected comparison group (87).
A minor criticism concerns some of the titles used in the book, which suggest coverage that is at times somewhat different from what is actually provided. For example, Chapter Eight is entitled “Children and the Media” but it discusses television only and is further limited by its focus on violence. Part III promises coverage of globalization in “the actual lives of children” but one of its three chapters does not deal with children at all, and another offers a limited catascopic view. The title of the book itself does not make clear that Asia and Africa are only mentioned in passing, while an orientation to Latin America dominates.
In the final analysis, this book helps direct attention to globalization as a critical child developmental context. In doing so, it touches on aspects that reflect the professional expertise and experience of the editors and authors. It does not, unfortunately, address some other important aspects of globalization in relation to young people. As such it should serve as an invitation and encouragement for others to break further ground in this important area of research and practice.
Reviewer Information
University of Colorado
Willem van Vliet-- is a mental laborer with undefined skills. He has a Ph.D. in Sociology (University of Toronto), etc., etc. He became immersed in children's environments and housing problems by birth, below sea level in an aporphyrogenic bunker in the postwar shortage-ridden Netherlands. A.k.a. El Capitán, he is in possession of an uncertified but authentic and persistent lunatic streak, evinced, inter alia, by his editing of the Encyclopedia of Housing and a growing stockpile of more and less odd ends. After coming to CU, he has retained an abiding interest in heather morning glory and rock gardening. Dessert remains his favorite dish. Address: willem@spot.colorado.edu