Abstract
The phrase ‘children without childhood’ is used particularly with respect to so-called developing countries. Eurocentric modes of thought related to colonial history are embodied in this term. In this chapter the way in which children and childhoods do not correspond with predominant European or Global Northern understanding is examined in the light of postcolonial studies and theories. Suggestions for possible alternative approaches and conduct are made. Additionally, after providing an overview of the most important postcolonial streams of thought, it is argued how postcolonial perspectives can be made productive for childhood studies. Critiques of the ‘colonisation’ of childhood, which were articulated in the 1970s and 1980s, are followed by a debate on today’s childhood politics as they converted into practice in the frame of so-called development policies. Special attention is placed on the treatment of indigenous and working children.
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Notes
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A paradox in postcolonial theory construction is that the majority of these theories have been written or were initially recognised in the colonial languages English, French and Spanish. Since in the meantime these colonial languages have become official languages in most former colonies and have even be called ‘world languages’, this can hardly be avoided.
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Indian historian Dipesh Chakrabarty (2000) pleaded for the ‘provincialisation of Europe’ for this reason.
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The term ‘west’ refers not to the geographical but rather the geopolitical understanding of the word. The same may be said for the terms ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’.
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In the first case, this means ‘exploitation colonies’ (usually Africa, South and Central America or parts of Asia); in the second they are ‘settlement colonies’ (e.g. Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the USA) (see Osterhammel 2005).
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Imperium is the Latin word that broadly speaking translates as the ‘power to command’. In Rome different kinds of power or authority were defined using different terms or words. Imperium normally referred to the ability of an individual such as an emperor, in the modern world a dictator or even an elected head of state such as a president, to command the military. Here it carries overtones of the USA’s military presence worldwide and undertones of the ‘imperative’ they assume as the world’s self-anointed leading nation; hence ‘US imperialism’ is often seen.
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Here, Said refers to ideas and concepts of French philosopher Michel Foucault (e.g. see Foucault [1969]2002). An earlier conception of othering dates back to the French writer Simone de Beauvoir ([1949]1997) and was systemised in the framework of Postcolonial Studies by Gayatri Spivak (1985; see Jensen 2011).
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In Latin America today many similar theories and projects have come about whose authors cannot all be individually mentioned in this chapter.
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Spivak borrows the term ‘subaltern’ from Marxist Italian political activist and philosopher Antonio Gramsci (see Forgacs 2000), who uses it to identify population groups who are subject of the hegemony of a ruling class or elite. Gramsci sought a term which could expand the ideas associated with the working class into other population groups, thus making the machinery of dominance visible which was not solely based on economic exploitation and political-military violence but also based on cultural dominance.
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Spivak uses subaltern to describe a person holding a subordinate or inferior position; it should not be confused with its use to describe a lower-ranking army officer.
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Here, the terms ‘black’ and ‘white’ are not used to label skin colour, but instead describe a superior and subordinate relationship, a visible reference point to racism.
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For example, Chakrabarty describes one such dilemma that postcolonial thought cannot exist without referring to categories such as justice and freedom which emerged with the European Enlightenment that are also tied to European expansion and colonial rule. This similarly applies to the recourse to universally understood categories of international human rights law.
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I refer here especially to works published in the English language that were mainly written by researchers from Europe, North America or Australia. Academic research into childhood in other regions of the world also orients itself, as far as terminology is concerned, to these works and corresponding theories.
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Here, it should be remembered that Jean-Jacques Rousseau ([1762]1979) who is considered the father of the modern concept of childhood referred to the alleged speechless utterances of children as a ‘universal language’ which at least all children are capable of understanding.
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The emerging postcolonial view of childhood was also influenced by the work of French historian, Philippe Ariès (1962), in which the supposed timelessness and universality of the ‘infantilised’ western bourgeois image of childhood were questioned.
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In English language childhood studies literature, many authors focus on childhoods as they relate to globalisation and postcolonial power structures (e.g. Burman 1994, 1996, 2012; Katz 2004; Burr 2006; Wells 2009; Wells et al. 2014). In Latin America several works have been published which explicitly deal with postcolonial influences on ‘indigenous childhoods’ or ‘Latin American childhoods’ and therein refer to postcolonial theories (e.g. Rengifo Vásquez 2005; Schibotto 2015). One issue of the Peru-based periodical NATs, which focuses especially on working children, was concerned solely with this topic (Colonialidad en los saberes y prácticas desde y con los NATs 2015).
- 19.
In this context ‘indigenous’ refers to people in colonised territories who were made subject of colonial systems. In my use of the term, slaves who were brought to the Americas and Caribbean are included. In postcolonial states descendents of these people usually remain socially marginalised and exposed to racism. However, as a result of colonial and postcolonial hybridism, there is now no clear distinction between these people and the rest of the population. Working children often, but not always, have an indigenous background. Here I explicitly use the term ‘working children’ rather than the more common term ‘child labour’, to describe the children as subjects (for more on the term ‘working children’ see Liebel 2004).
- 20.
The indigenous languages I know do not refer to the term ‘work’; instead there are words for specific activities which are meaningful in life and for the community. Here, the term work refers to any activity which contributes to sustaining life regardless of the societal form in which it occurs.
- 21.
A further comment by Suárez Morales included in the aforementioned expert report should also be noted here (op. cit.: 116; my translation from Spanish): ‘Western models of education are generally insensitive towards the diversity and the various needs of children and youth from indigenous populations. One of the factors contributing to children’s work in indigenous communities is in fact the unsuitability of state education policy, which ultimately leads to indigenous children’s demotivation and exclusion.’
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Liebel, M. (2017). Children Without Childhood? Against the Postcolonial Capture of Childhoods in the Global South. In: Invernizzi, A., Liebel, M., Milne, B., Budde, R. (eds) ‘Children Out of Place’ and Human Rights . Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33251-2_6
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