Child Labour Opponents and their Campaigns in the Americas in Global Perspective, 1888-1938

该项目的主要目标是调查和比较在1888年至1938年反童工运动达到顶峰的地方、国家和/或经常在全球范围内纠缠在一起的童工反对者的不同样本、他们的动机和运动。尽管当代童工得到了学术界的关注，但我们缺乏超越国家框架、包括“全球南方”在内的全面的童工历史。直到最近，才有几项研究对比了地区和历史背景，或调查了跨国纠葛。特别是，关于全球废除童工运动的知识匮乏。该项目利用从全球13个档案馆收集的材料，重点关注巴西和美国这两个全球背景但独特的案例研究，提出以下问题：谁是主角，他们如何以及为什么在不同地区和不同时刻反对童工？不同地区之间的反童工运动如何？它在全球范围内的纠葛程度如何？主人公如何影响(或受到)国际会议和组织(例如，国际非加太组织和劳工组织)及其形成的全球化反童工言论和做法的影响？该项目旨在解决三个研究空白：1)历史背景而不是现实背景下的反童工活动；2)来自“南方”而不仅仅是“西方”的反对者；以及3)被忽视的不同反对者(从精英慈善家到劳工运动，从民间社会到跨国组织)，他们的动机和运动(包括媒体和跨国组织作为交流平台的作用)。该项目的主要成果(专著)创新性地将定性比较和纠缠历史的方法与传记和媒体聚焦的方法结合在一起，将从全球角度讲述20世纪初美洲反童工活动的第一历史，通过来自里约/S、圣保罗和纽约市的10位不同的本地化但在全国和全球范围内纠缠的主角的传记进行叙述。就像照相机一样，它从他们的传记(私人)和当地背景(城市)缩小到国家和全球层面(作为一场全球运动的废除童工)，使该项目可行。这些模范活动人士不仅积累了关于两个国家案件的知识，还将其置于更广泛的背景下。虽然该项目将在区域(全球而不是“西方”)和主题(反对者、动机、运动)方面推进反对童工的历史，但它也建设性地应对针对全球历史方法(包括劳工和社会运动的子领域)的批评，因为它有可能压制当地或社会的特殊性(多样性)。该项目以全球反对童工的人为重点，将有助于更广泛地推动全球废除童工的历史。

The project’s main objective is to investigate and compare a diverse sample of locally grounded yet nationally and/or often globally entangled child labour opponents, their motivations, and campaigns between 1888 and 1938, when anti child-labour activism was at its peak. While contemporary child labour has received scholarly attention, we lack comprehensive histories of child labour that extend beyond the nation framework and include the “Global South”. Only recently have a few studies contrasted regional and historical contexts or investigated transnational entanglements. In particular, knowledge on the global child labour abolition movement is scarce. Drawing on material gathered from 13 archives worldwide and focusing on Brazil and the United States as globally contextualised yet distinctive case studies, this project asks: Who were the protagonists, and how and why did they oppose child labour in different regions and moments in time? How does anti-child labour activism compare between regions and to what extent was it globally entangled? How did protagonists impact (or were impacted by) international conferences and organisations (e.g. the IACP and ILO), and the globalising anti-child labour discourses and practices they developed? The project aims to address three research gaps: 1) anti-child labour activism in historical context rather than the present; 2) opponents from the “South” rather than just the “West”; and 3) the understudied diverse opponents (from elite philanthropists to the labour movement, from civil society to transnational organisations), their motivations and campaigns (including the role of media and transnational organisations as exchange platforms). Innovatively combining the method of qualitative comparison and entangled history with a biographical and media-focused approach, the project’s main outcome (monograph) will be a first history of early twentieth century anti-child labour activism in the Americas in global perspective narrated through the biographies of 10 diverse localised, yet nationally and globally entangled, protagonists from Rio/São Paulo and New York City. Like a camera, it zooms out from their biographies (private) and local context (city) to the national and global level (child labour abolition as a global movement), making the project workable. Rather than merely accumulating knowledge about two national cases, these exemplar activists are set in a broader context. While the project will advance the history of child labour opposition regionally (in global rather than “Western” terms) and thematically (opponents, motivations, campaigns), it also constructively engages with criticism levelled against global history approaches (including the subfields of labour and social movements) that it risks silencing local or social specificities (diversity). Focusing on global child labour opponents, this project will contribute to a broader history of global child labour abolition.