As children and young people are murdered, on a daily basis, in Gaza, Myanmar, Nepal, Sudan and many other countries, does it even make sense to do research? What effect can this have?
The purpose of committed research course is to document inequities, uncover and analyse systemic issues, chart existing policies and their impact, and offer new ideas. The hope of academics and civil society is that their findings and arguments will jolt political decision makers into systemic change.
While most people – even conservative governments – would profess that they abhor child poverty and would do anything to prevent it, realities are different. The new Handbook on Child Poverty and Inequality, edited by Alberto Minujin and Enrique Delamonica, is a treasure trove of pertaining information and analysis.
My chapter “Analysing and redressing child poverty and socio-economic and political exclusions” explores the interconnectedness between monetary poverty and access to child-relevant goods and services. Children face many well-known social exclusions based on ascribed identity – gender, ethnicity, caste, location, faith and so many others factors – as well as political, ecological, and emotional exclusions. The overriding reason for child poverty, I argue, is associated with the economic exclusion of their families and the issue of economic class. The combination of exclusions plays out dramatically for children, and especially for girl children, and many damages experienced are irreversible.
Beyond the individual, family and community aspects is the deeper question how unfettered capitalism and hyper-globalisation affect child poverty and exclusion? This is through the lack of decent work, global value chains, systematic austerity and commercialisation policies, and political authoritarianism.
How can this change? Are there policies that could tackle child poverty? Proposals include the revitalisation of the role and responsibility of governments for providing universal and inclusive, high-quality public goods and services including among others education, health services, clean water and sanitation, access to information, a safe physical environment. We also need policy decisions at the country and multilateral level to rein in hyper-capitalism and enforce the agreements on climate and biodiversity. The core human rights instruments including the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on Migrants and their Families, as well as the fundamental ILO conventions and the climate and environment-related framework conventions must be ratified/properly implemented. All these could cohere under an eco-social contract which would encompass human rights, gender justice, a transformation of economies, progressive fiscal contracts, a contract for nature, and historical justice and solidarity – with child rights as a constitutive element. An opportunity to re-commit to these norms and agreements could come with the World Summit for Social Development this autumn.
In the current dystopian geopolitical constellation, progressive academics and civil society will need to pressurise governments. Then our research will have served a purpose!
Here are the volume’s chapter titles and a list of the authors. If you don’t have institutional access, get your library to buy the (e-)book!
Comments on The Handbook on Child Poverty and Inequality
As children and young people are murdered, on a daily basis, in Gaza, Myanmar, Nepal, Sudan and many other countries, does it even make sense to do research? What effect can this have?
The purpose of committed research course is to document inequities, uncover and analyse systemic issues, chart existing policies and their impact, and offer new ideas. The hope of academics and civil society is that their findings and arguments will jolt political decision makers into systemic change.
While most people – even conservative governments – would profess that they abhor child poverty and would do anything to prevent it, realities are different. The new Handbook on Child Poverty and Inequality, edited by Alberto Minujin and Enrique Delamonica, is a treasure trove of pertaining information and analysis.
My chapter “Analysing and redressing child poverty and socio-economic and political exclusions” explores the interconnectedness between monetary poverty and access to child-relevant goods and services. Children face many well-known social exclusions based on ascribed identity – gender, ethnicity, caste, location, faith and so many others factors – as well as political, ecological, and emotional exclusions. The overriding reason for child poverty, I argue, is associated with the economic exclusion of their families and the issue of economic class. The combination of exclusions plays out dramatically for children, and especially for girl children, and many damages experienced are irreversible.
Beyond the individual, family and community aspects is the deeper question how unfettered capitalism and hyper-globalisation affect child poverty and exclusion? This is through the lack of decent work, global value chains, systematic austerity and commercialisation policies, and political authoritarianism.
How can this change? Are there policies that could tackle child poverty? Proposals include the revitalisation of the role and responsibility of governments for providing universal and inclusive, high-quality public goods and services including among others education, health services, clean water and sanitation, access to information, a safe physical environment. We also need policy decisions at the country and multilateral level to rein in hyper-capitalism and enforce the agreements on climate and biodiversity. The core human rights instruments including the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on Migrants and their Families, as well as the fundamental ILO conventions and the climate and environment-related framework conventions must be ratified/properly implemented. All these could cohere under an eco-social contract which would encompass human rights, gender justice, a transformation of economies, progressive fiscal contracts, a contract for nature, and historical justice and solidarity – with child rights as a constitutive element. An opportunity to re-commit to these norms and agreements could come with the World Summit for Social Development this autumn.
In the current dystopian geopolitical constellation, progressive academics and civil society will need to pressurise governments. Then our research will have served a purpose!
Here are the volume’s chapter titles and a list of the authors. If you don’t have institutional access, get your library to buy the (e-)book!
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