Dissertation Research: A Reconsideration of Child Labor in the Contexts of Household Economics and Community Norms

论文研究：家庭经济和社区规范背景下对童工的重新思考

• 批准号: 0234019
• 负责人: Mark Nichter
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-04-01 至 2004-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0234019&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Reconsideration; Child; Labor

0234019Nichter / WindThe international effort to end child labor has sometimes been framed as being an ideological battle between Euro-American universalistic conceptions of child development and human rights on the one hand and the culturally specific beliefs and practices of developing countries on the other. Both agencies of the United Nations and child welfare NGOs have emphasized the negative impact of child labor on the physical, mental, and moral health of children. This dissertation research by a cultural anthropologist will examine the health of child workers in Mysore, India within the context of household livelihood strategies. The student will study a select group of households for one year to determine whether children's contributions to household income differentially affect their access to health-related resources and to identify and compare how a range of work-related variables are perceived as impacting children's health. Interviews with other community members and the staff of local child welfare NGOs will serve to situate the views and practices of individual households within a broader framework of community norms regarding childhood as a life phase, the human rights of children, and the age and gender- appropriateness of different types of work. The broader impacts of this research include advancing our understanding of how communities evaluate the risks associated with child labor, an understanding crucial to the internationally recognized short-term goal of quickly removing children from the most hazardous forms of work. It will also offer important insights into household health and economic logic useful to those designing child survival and poverty alleviation programs. In addition to such practical applications, the research will add to recent social science efforts to discover ways in which universalistic concepts of human rights may find culturally acceptable interpretations in diverse settings. The project also contributes to the education of a young social scientist.

0234019 Nichter/Wind终止童工的国际努力有时被认为是一场意识形态之战，一方面是欧美对儿童发展和人权的普遍观念，另一方面是发展中国家文化上特有的信仰和做法。联合国机构和儿童福利非政府组织都强调童工对儿童身心和道德健康的负面影响。本论文的研究由文化人类学家将审查在迈索尔，印度的家庭生计战略的背景下，童工的健康。学生将研究一组选定的家庭一年，以确定儿童对家庭收入的贡献是否不同地影响他们获得与健康有关的资源，并确定和比较一系列与工作有关的变量如何被视为影响儿童的健康。 与其他社区成员和当地儿童福利非政府组织的工作人员的访谈将有助于在更广泛的社区规范框架内了解个别家庭的观点和做法，这些规范涉及童年是一个生命阶段、儿童的人权以及不同类型工作的年龄和性别适当性。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括促进我们对社区如何评估与童工相关的风险的理解，这对国际公认的短期目标至关重要，即迅速将儿童从最危险的工作形式中移除。它还将提供有关家庭健康和经济逻辑的重要见解，对那些设计儿童生存和扶贫方案的人有用。除了这些实际应用之外，这项研究还将补充最近的社会科学努力，以发现人权的普遍概念如何在不同的环境中找到文化上可接受的解释。该项目还有助于培养一名年轻的社会科学家。