Child Labor

by

Mary Lorena Kenny

Introduction

Approaches to research on child labor and the development of appropriate action to combat it have shifted in the past few decades, from a focus on something that happens “naturally” as part of the trajectory of poor children’s lives, to in-depth research based on first-person accounts on the ways in which context, gender, and race (as well as urbanization and global shifts in labor and consumption) shape the experience of children’s work. Together with scholarship historicizing “childhood,” the family and household, and the ongoing efforts by NGOs, a rich source of information is available to help navigate the complexity of children’s work, the nature and extent of specific types of labor, and the significance it has for children, their families, and the world.

General Overviews

This is a suggestive, not exhaustive, list of works drawn from the thousands of books, articles, government reports, essays, newspaper commentaries, dissertations, traveler accounts, and photographs produced by political, academic, and humanitarian agencies that describe, decry, and advocate against child labor. Emphasis on child labor may be embedded in studies on street children, human trafficking, and human rights. The following works provide broad overviews of the causes and consequences of child labor, their sociocultural contexts (Hindman 2009; Hobbs, et al. 2002; and Leonard 2009), and efforts to eliminate child labor (Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, Understanding Children’s Work). Schlemmer 2000 is a good companion to these broad overviews, as it anchors children’s work in local structural and social locations and highlights how their work “makes sense” to children, their families, and the community. Lee-Wright 2009 provides information for understanding how economic transformations and policies create new forms of labor, migration, and consumption.

• Hindman, Hugh D., ed. The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Regional Survey. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2009.

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  An encyclopedic overview of child labor, both contemporary and historical. Contains over 200 essays that address the nature of child labor and the efforts to combat it. It contains regional and country-specific studies, and it is one of the few studies that address contemporary child labor in the United States.

• Hobbs, Sandy, Jim McKechnie, and Michael Lavalette. Child Labor: A World History Companion. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2002.

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  This reference is useful for the student approaching the topic for the first time. It provides brief descriptions of topics, people, and agencies that range from the historical to the present, child-labor niches, persons and agencies working on behalf of children, country profiles, websites, bibliography, and photographs.

• International Labour Organization. International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour.

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  IPEC is a clearinghouse for information on the nature and extent of child labor worldwide, polices, laws, and action plans. Brief factsheets provide basic information on types of labor.

• Lee-Wright, Peter. Child Slaves. London: Earthscan, 2009.

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  Outlines the global dimension of child labor by showing how the production (of goods and services) by children in low-income countries is associated with the consumption (of goods and services, including sexual labor) in wealthier societies.

• Leonard, Madeleine. “Child Work in the 21st Century: Dilemmas and Challenges.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 29.3–4 (2009).

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  The entire issue is devoted to contemporary debates on children’s work (legal, human rights, definition of a child). It presents qualitative case studies (child prostitutes in Thailand, cocoa workers in Ghana) as well as quantitative research on household composition (Brazil), self- esteem (United States), and accidents (United Kingdom) associated with child labor.

• Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking.

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  The OCFT provides annual reports on the worst forms of child labor going back to 2002, the Campaign against Child Labor series, By the Sweat and Toil of Children series, and an A to Z annotated bibliography on child labor and forced labor in different countries.

• Schlemmer, Bernard, ed. The Exploited Child. London: Zed, 2000.

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  A collection of essays focusing on empirical research (India, Thailand, Togo, Ghana, Senegal, Madagascar, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala), policy (India, Brazil), and the difficulties in conceptualizing “child labor” within customary and exploitative family, household, and societal practices.

• Understanding Children’s Work.

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  The UCW offers a wealth of information created from a partnership between the ILO, UNICEF, and the World Bank. This site provides 200 data sets from 100 countries and a bibliography on child labor searchable by issue, author, and country. A good place to start to get baseline quantitative information.