On Seeking Global History's Inner Child

Author(s): Raymond Grew

Source: Journal of Social History, Vol. 38, No. 4, Globalization and Childhood (Summer, 2005),
pp. 849-858
Published by: Oxford University Press
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ON SEEKING GLOBAL HISTORY'S INNER CHILD
By Raymond
Grew
University
of
Michigan
Globalization and childhood are both
treacherously
familiar terms. Fashion?
able
categories
used in serious and
provocative scholarship,
their wide
currency
owes too much to their
indeterminacy.
Almost
any
screed about social
change,
whether
denouncing
its direction or
proclaiming
its
promise, acquires
a tone of
historical
depth by attributing
those
changes
to
globalization.
Almost
any
as?
sessment of social values
gains poignancy
and
power
when connected to issues
of childhood. Not that these moves are
wrong
or the motives for
making
them
suspect; they
are
just
too
easy.
Words
guaranteed
a warm
reception
tend to in-
duce loose
thinking.
There is no
general protection against
such
dangers,
but let me
begin by
mak?
ing
some distinctions: between
globalization
and
global history
and between
childhood and children. Globalization indicates a
process
of
change
and
places
it in time. Hence
analysis
in terms of
globalization gains
substance when that
process
is addressed
directly, establishing
the
chronological period,
social con?
ditions,
and cultural context in which it is
thought
to
operate.
Much of the
writing
about
globalization
is more
interested, however,
in the future than the
past;
for that suffix?ization?can
barely
contain the
teleological
thrust within
it. To
temper that,
it
helps
to consider whether the
process
of
change
under
study
could shift direction or cease to matter.
Furthermore,
the case for
globalization
ought
to include more than economics.1 Not
only
should
ideas,
technology,
cul?
ture,
and
political pressures
be taken into account but
analysis
must
weigh
the
possibility
that these
processes may
not all work toward a common end nor favor
the same sort of
change.
History
is
helpful
here.
Thinking
in terms of
global history,
rather than
glob?
alization,
reduces
teleological temptations
and
opens inquiry
to a broader view.
Global
history,
or the new
global history
as some of us call
it,2
is
clearly inspired
by contemporary experience
but
encompasses
more than the
history
of
global?
ization. It calls for
exploring
the
past thematically (rather
than
through
an all-
encompassing
narrative)
and
doing
so
through significant global relationships
(thus seeking
more than the fact of
parallel development
in,
for
example,
com?
merce,
state
making
or
modernization).
A
global history
of the
present
does not
have to be a
history
of
globalization.
Global
history
does not assume
chronology
but rather discovers the
periodization appropriate
to
specific topics.
It looks for
widespread
connections while
recognizing
that
change
can be discontinuous and
that one set of
changes may
induce other
contradictory changes.
Because such
openness provides
little initial
guidance,
focused research in terms of
global
his?
tory requires
a clear statement of the historical
problem
to be
investigated
and
a
strategy
for
recognizing global
connections. This is less
overwhelming
that
it sounds at
first,
and I will
suggest
some
ways
of
looking
for
global
relation?
ships.
The
important point,
however,
is the benefit that comes from
thinking
first within the framework of
global history, thereby creating
more solid
grounds
for
determining
when to declare that a
process
of
globalization
is in
play.
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850
journal
of social
history
summer 2005
The historical
problems
of interest here have to do with
childhood,
and an?
other distinction?between childhood and
children?although
obvious and fa?
miliar,
is worth
recalling.
Childhood is a cultural
concept, being
a child is a
stage
of life rooted in
biology.
The
meaning
of childhood is
deeply
embedded,
in a fam?
ily,
a
particular
culture,
and the social conditions of a
specific
time and
place.
These
multiple
vectors of
meaning
make childhood both a
telling
social indica?
tor and a
peculiarly complex topic.
Even within the
family
the
meaning
of child?
hood
changes
with
age, gender,
and
family
size;
between families with
location,
income,
and status. In different contexts childhood refers to different
phases
of
life,
carries different
expectations,
and offers different
protections, opportuni?
ties,
and
dangers.
These
complexities
are
multiplied
in historical
comparisons
and
analyses
of
change,
essential as
they
are. A
simpler category?children?
can therefore be
helpful, providing
data structured
by biology
and
subject
to
social and
chronological
definitions that
may
serve as a measure of contextual
differences and historical
changes.
For all this
complexity,
the
study
of childhood offers
special
rewards for the
student of
change.
There is the remarkable conservatism
surrounding
childhood,
as
parents
recreate their own childhood and
sponsor games
and
toys
that recover
memories of
past
eras. In the most
urban, developed
countries, twenty-first-
century
children
play
with steam
engines
and Victorian dolls in old-fashioned
doll houses.
Through
a lifetime of
change,
adults maintain modes of
speech
and
food
preferences
absorbed when
they
were children. Yet children are more
likely
to
adapt
to and even embrace the new than
any
other
segment
of
society.
Exam?
ining
social
change through
the
study
of childhood thus
pushes beyond
issues
of
accepting
or
resisting change, revealing
how
amalgams
of old and new are
forever reconstituted. Attitudes toward
young
and old are fundamental to the
daily functioning
of
any society,
and the link between
youth
and
history
has
long
fascinated scholars.3
Although connecting
childhood to
global history challenges cognitive
cus?
tom within each
field,
the
potential
value of
doing
so
justifies
the
undertaking.
Let me
suggest
some
ways
of
prompting questions
that can connect childhood
to
global history. Admittedly, global
histories most
commonly
address
topics?
such as
trade, investment, imperial
rule, military power, religion, migration,
technology?that
contain within themselves some account of the means
by
which
they spread.
Childhood does not
provide
that
help,
which
may
in
part
explain why
discussions of
global history
and
globalization generally give
scant
attention to children.4
Nevertheless,
the kinds of
questions
useful in
exploring
the
global
histories of other
topics
can be
applied
to
global
histories of child?
hood. These
questions
arise,
it seems to
me,
from
inquiry
into four sorts of
global
relationships:
1)
the common circumstances of human
life, 2)
the dissemina-
tion of ideas and
techniques, 3)
the web of connections that tie institutions and
groups together,
and
4)
the cultural encounters between societies.
To ask about the common circumstances in which children live is to start with
human
biology
and the fact that the needs of infants are similar
everywhere.
But
the universal constraints of
demography, geography,
climate, diseases, diet,
sta?
tus
hierarchies,
and
gender
roles, although
different in each
society,
are also all
affected
by global
events. That fact is reflected in
fertility
rates and infant mor-
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ON SEEKING GLOBAL HISTORY'S INNER CHILD 851
tality,
earlier
puberty, patterns
of
mortality,
and a
population's age profile,
all
therefore connected to
global history yet
tied to local
mores,
social
structures,
and behaviors. It makes a difference whether children live in cities or the coun?
tryside
and whether their lives are
spent primarily
outdoors or within
homes,
schools,
and
workplaces.
For individual
children,
these conditions are related
to the source of
family incomes,
to children's roles in work and
leisure,
and to
the forms of education
they experience. Finally,
all this affects and is affected
by patterns
of
kinship, religion,
and
mobility (including changes
in
location,
opportunity,
and
status).
If
biology
dictates when
babyhood begins,
societies de?
termine when the
dependency
of childhood ends. Children's
dependence
on
their
ecological,
structural, social,
and cultural environment invites
comparison
between
groups
and across time.
Questions
that
begin by probing
circumstances
common to children
prompt recognition
of their
particular
conditions in
specific
societies. As research
necessarily
becomes more
focused,
the scholar's research
agenda
for
investigating
the lives of children in a
specific place
and time
begins
to take
shape.
The dissemination of
ideas, institutions, techniques,
and customs is central
to much of the work on
global history
and
globalization.
Little of it refers to
children,
and at first
glance
children and childhood
hardly
seem central. Yet
the
spread
of
Christianity, Buddhism, Islam,
or
contemporary
fundamentalism
does affect children's lives.5
Concepts
of
family
and
childhood,
religious
and
secular,
are disseminated
by missionaries,6 empires,
charities and relief
agencies,
NGOs,
and
UNICEF;
and elements of those
conceptions
are
subsequently
main?
tained
by
international laws and treaties.7 In
every society
some
indidivudals,
groups,
or even
regions
serve as
agents
of transmission.
Traders, teachers, writers,
shamans and doctors in effect select and filter the
importation
of
commodities,
technologies,
ideas,
and
mores,
facilitating
their
adaptation
to local
society.
An?
thropologists
referred to this as the middleman's
role,
and we can
identify
those
agents
who most affect children's lives.
Migration,
with its
special impact
on
children,
also carries behaviors
affecting
childhood across
societies, especially
through
the movement of women from
Scandinavia, Ireland,
Latin
America,
the
Philippines
and India
employed
as
givers
of childcare in
Europe,
the United
States,
and Saudi Arabia.8 Governments borrow from each other's
regulations
of child
labor,
laws
protecting
children,
and
provisions
for
public
schools, ju?
venile courts and
prisons. Among many
indirect
consequences, global
markets
can have an
impact
on
children,
not
only
in factories but on the streets.9 Such
possibilities
for local case studies
relating
childhood to
global history
can refine
our
understanding
of
global
modes of dissemination as
they expand
our under?
standing
of
changes
in childhood. One
predictable
and
salutary
result of such
studies will be
deepening
evidence of how
global
influences and local
practices
function not as
conflicting
forces but rather share in
continuing processes
of
adaptive change
and
creativity.
Even direct imitation is
always partial,
as much
absorbed into local values and culture as a marker of
global change.
When that
lesson of
global history
is
forgotten,
the social sciences risk
recapitulating
old er-
rors about tradition as static and
modernity
as
uniform,
external and intrusive.
Webs of connection are the most
tangible
elements of
global history,
most
visible in the links formed
through imperial
rule and economic interests.10 As
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852
journal
of social
history
summer 2005
states extend their
power through armies,
officials and
bureaucracies;
as traders
establish
regular
trade routes and
entrepots;
as businesses establish
agents
and
branch
offices, they
create nodes of interaction and networks of communication.
For centuries
intellectuals,
business
people,
and
professionals
of
every category
have maintained international
connections,
sometimes
personal
but more often
sustained
through
formal structures. Labor
organizations, political parties
(none
more
prominently
than communist
parties), religious
institutions,
corporations,
investment
firms,
trade
associations,
and a
myriad
of others establish
lasting
con?
nections that affect
society
as a whole but also individuals and families. Their
regular
activities, special meetings,
and newsletters maintain
(an
often
highly
selective)
awareness of other
peoples
and
places. They
mold
patterns
of
travel,
information
flow,
and awareness of other
lands;
and
they
influence
opinion
about
the
desirability
of various
political,
economic,
and social
policies,
Most of these
organizations
are not
primarily
concerned with
childhood,
although
their social
impact
is
something any
account of children's lives must
recognize.
As webs of
connection
thicken,
less dominant
organizations
and more informal communi-
cations follow
parallel paths,
and
many
of these do
principally
aim at children:
scouts,
church
groups,
other
youth
movements,
international
schools,
student
exchanges, pen pais
and internet users. Whereas the
spread
of formal
schooling
is an
example
of
global
diffusion,
changes
in child labor reflect the kind of di?
rect
power
transmitted
through
webs of connection. The terms of
factory labor,
even when
they incorporate
some local
mores,
are often determined
by
interna?
tional
corporations
and the
competitive
standard
they
set. To counterbalance
that
pressure,
a web of international treaties and
regulation
is called
upon.
Global webs of connection are
important
elements in the lives of children.
In the
largest
sense
nearly
all
global
relations involve cultural
encounters,
but the
questions
are somewhat different from those outlined so far. The im?
pact
of cross-cultural contacts on
global history12
includes
many
elements that
center on
young people.13
As issues of cultural
identity
become self-conscious
and salient in
response
to
global
influences,
children become a focus of
training
in
rituals, folklore,
and
language thought
to be threatened. Museums are dou-
bly
a
global phenomenon,
institutions imitated around the world as a means
to
codify
cultures
challenged by global
influences. Schools
themselves,
on the
other
hand,
are loci of cultural encounter that
present
children with values and
techniques
external to the
family;
and
systems
of formal
schooling import
val?
ues and
techniques
from
ever-widening
circles. Because cultural conflicts are
inherent in the colonial
schooling
of colonizers and natives
alike,
close
study
of them
exposes underlying
attitudes
(imperial
and
indigenous)
that determine
much of childhood
experience through imposed prescriptions
as to
age, kinship,
work, gender
roles,
and class as well as cultural content.14 Less formal cultural
practices
influenced
by global
encounters can be even more
telling
in their im?
pact
on children's
lives/5
Travel
(by tourists,
business
personnel, migrants,
and
refugees),
consumerism, newspapers, magazines,
film, television, radio,
and mu?
sic
carry conceptions
of childhood
expressed
in
behavior, dress,
and
aspirations.
Nor is this
entirely
new.
Nineteenth-century
fashions in children's
dress,
liter?
ature,
and
toys spread among
the middle classes in
Europe,
the
Americas,
and
parts
of Asia
along
with new rules of behavior for children and
parents.
Because
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ON SEEKING GLOBAL HISTORY'S INNER CHILD 853
such influences are so
multiple
and
ubiquitous
and because related
changes
in
fashion are so
striking,
the risk is less that studies of childhood will overlook
them than that their
significance
will be assumed. Taken to
represent
all sorts
of social tension and structural
change, they
can
pass unchallenged
as
expla?
nation. In
themselves,
blue
jeans,
fast
foods,
and backward baseball
caps may
or
may
not have
lasting impact
on values or life
styles.
American
rap
where
English
is
poorly
understood and
Japanese
video
games
outside
Japan may
take
on
meanings quite
different from those
prominent
in their
place
of
origin.
In
that sense
popular
culture often
gains
in
translation, allowing
new
styles
to exist
comfortably
beside old customs.16 The
very
existence ofa
youth
culture is
surely
significant,
however,
and its essential
openness
to
global
influences must tend
to accelerate some
aspects
of social
change. Today,
when no
society
seems im-
permeable
to
it, youth
culture itself has become a
symbol
of
globalization.
These
self-aware
youth
cultures affect
patterns
of
consumption
and thus the
economy,
spur
redefinition of
leisure, question
established
mores,
and sometimes become
associated with
political positions (in opposition
to war or communist rule or
in
support
of fundamentalism or
revolution).
As
they approach
adulthood,
chil?
dren
may
come to
challenge
with ammunition
globally transported
the culture
they
were
expected
to
embody.
These four
categories
can be used as modes of
inquiry,
frameworks for think?
ing
about
global history. They
can be
helpful
in
opening
the mind to some of
the less obvious
ways
in which
global history
has relevance for a
specific program
of research.
By stimulating
new
questions?and good questions
lie at the heart
of
significant research?they prod
the scholar to move
beyond
familiar
issues,
interpretations,
and common
assumptions.
The
researcher,
of
course,
must de-
cide which
questions
to
pursue, weighing
relevance,
potential significance,
and
feasibility.
These choices will
largely
determine the kinds of data
needed,
their
likely sources,
and the methods to be
employed.
One critical element remains.
In addition to
undertaking
the research itself and
adjusting
to the
surprises
and
detours it will
bring,
the scholar must establish the central historical
problem
or
problems
the research is to address. Whereas
global history
seems to invite lim-
itless
inclusion,
well-defined
problems require
a
tighter
standard of relevance.
A framework drawn from
global history
can then be useful in
revealing
whether
the issues involved in the selected historical
problems
are
distinctively
new or
historically
recurrent,
embedded in one
society
or common to
many,
connected
to or
separate
from
global
historical
processes.
Globalization is one
description
of those
processes. Powerfully suggestive,
it
raises vital concerns about the
contemporary
world.
By positing
common in?
fluences and
pressures
across
countries,
it invites
comparison
and stimulates
generalization.17
Its
very currency
can, however,
invite intellectual laziness and
blurred
meanings, offering easy
answers before the critical
questions
have been
carefully posed. Many presuppositions
about
globalization?that
it is
homoge-
nizing,
undermines ties of
family
and
kinship,
is
locally depowering
and
merely
an
agent
of
foreign capitalism?are
themselves an effect of
globalization,
the
spread
of a
vocabulary describing change
that
barely engages
local
reality.
The
corrective
requires
more than firmer definitions. Criteria normative in
global
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854
journal
of social
history
summer 2005
history
need also to be
applied
in assertions about
globalization.
For
example,
how are
global
relations
specifically
involved in the
topic being investigated?
Can it be shown that these relations are
part
of a
continuing
historical
process?
The various elements
(ideological,
cultural,
political, technological,
and eco?
nomic)
that make for
globalization
need then to be sorted
out,
the
ways
in which
they
function
analyzed,
and an
appropriate periodization
set forth. Several ben?
efits follow. Well-formulated historical
problems
can be addressed in
light
of
theoretical work on
global history
and
globalization.
The
shifting
balance and
reciprocity
between local and
global
influences,
so
troubling
for
easy general?
izations,
become useful evidence for
analyzing
the
process
of social
change?
precisely
because that
process,
even when
clearly
a result of
globalization,
is not
an irresistible
juggernaut
that rolls in
only
one direction but rather a
piecemeal
series of
reinterpretations
and
responses expressed through
concrete activities
rooted in
specific
needs, cultures,
and choices.18
To
study
childhood in relation to
global history
and
globalization
offers the
opportunity
to connect the
particulars
of
ordinary
life with
patterns
of
change
across the world and over time. While
building
on the achievements of social
history (with
its
penchant
for
history
from
below,
the
history
of
everyday life,
and
microhistory)
this research adds new
layers
of historical
significance
for the
study
of childhood. At the same
time,
these fresh
investigations
also contribute
to a better
understanding
of
global history
and
globalization.
If
global
influ?
ences alter the
length
of childhood
beyond biological dependence,
affect the
promise
and
purpose
of childhood and
change
its
very meaning,
then demon-
strating
that will be as
important
to theories of
global history
as to discussions of
childhood. Much of the considerable
scholarship
on childhood
already
invites
a
global
view.19
Only
individual studies can show when
global
factors lead to
childhood's
gaining special
status,
being differently
defined or more
formally pro?
tected. Such studies will tell us the circumstances in which childhood becomes
surrounded
by
visions of
opportunity
or a
prelude
to
unemployment. They
can
assess whether the children of Latin
America, Japan,
and
Europe
have so much
in common as to be a factor in
globalization, making
childhood itself a motor of
social
change.
Studies of childhood
placed
in a
global
framework can also
use,
and east new
light
on,
other
larger
bodies of
scholarly
literature. Globalization is most fre?
quently thought
of as the
spread
of
capitalism,
with its often
disruptive impact
on
patterns
of trade and
production
and on the material conditions in which
people
live. Research on childhood can offer a fresh look at that
aspect
of
glob?
alization. Discussions of
imperialism,
world
systems,
and
dependency
often
pro?
ceed from the
top down, emphasizing
dominance and
subordination,
the use
of
power,
and the intentions of
map-drawing
statesmen and
profit-seeking
en?
trepreneurs
and
corporations. Studying
children allows the scholar to start from
a kind of
neutrality
that allows a fresh look. For
children,
the
impact
of
globaliza?
tion,
however
harsh,
is
likely
at first to be indirect. The
responses
that
emerge
from local
society
and culture
may incorporate
other,
conflicting global
influ?
ences,
giving agency
to families and children themselves.
Women's
history
and
family history,
mature and
interdisciplinary
fields of
study,
also offer
ways
to
investigate
the nexus between childhood and
global
history.
In these
fields, too,
extant literatures rich in
findings,
controversies,
and
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ON SEEKING GLOBAL HISTORY'S INNER CHILD 855
theories allow new views of
global processes.
The
history
of that literature also
teaches
something
that
global
historians would do well to
keep
in mind. It took
decades of
painstaking
work to establish that the
modern,
nuclear
family
is not
so
modern,
that
kinship patterns
can be maintained even as
they usefully adapt
to social
change,
that the
impact
of industrialization on families was not so sim?
ply
des true tive as once
thought,
and that
family
structures did not
merely
receive
the
impact
of industrialization but had an
impact
on it.20 Instead of
treating
the
family
as a fixed
unit, family
studies
currently
attend to life courses and accom-
panying changes
in the
meaning
of
family.
Research on childhood
may similarly
reveal a crucial
flexibility
in
global relationships.
Global
history
can also
gain
from the
distinctive,
if somewhat
disjointed,
his?
torical literature on
youth, particular youth
movements and
youth
culture. Some
of this work focuses on the
political importance
of
having
a
population
a
high
proportion
of which is
young,
as in the French
Revolution,
the Russian rev?
olution,
and
Germany
in the 1930s.21 A
larger body
of work treats
political
movements centered on
youth,
from Mazzini's
Young Italy
and other nation?
alist
organizations
to the
protests
that
swept
societies from
Japan
to Czechoslo-
vakia in 1968.22 These interests rise toward theories of
history
in the literature
on
generations.
Between the first and second world
wars,
Karl Mannheim and
Jose Ortega y
Gasset
published
influential claims for the
importance
of
gener?
ational
attitudes,23
and recurrent formulations
explore generational
conflict as
an
explanatory concept.24
Of
course,
not
every generational
conflict is transfor-
mative,
and
defining
a
generation
can raise intractable difficulties. The idea that
a whole
generation
thinks or acts in a characteristic
way
has
proven illusory,25
and it will be no easier to determine whether
age
cohorts in different countries
are more similar to each other than to their older or
younger compatriots.
Even
so,
there is
something
here for
global
historians. It makes a difference whether
the
young
are viewed with condescension or
envy
and whether a
society
con?
siders
generations
to constitute
cyclically repeated stages
of life or
sequentially
distinctive stances toward the world. Even with
varying
national
emphases
(ro-
manticism and nationalism in
Germany,
Christian
uplift
and
scouting
in Great
Britain,
students in France and the United
States),
themes run
through
this
literature that are
particularly suggestive
for
global history.
If the
young
read?
ily
embrace new
(globally
circulated)
ideas and
bring youthful energy
to
public
action and
political
mobilization,
if
they
are
eager
to
replace
the established so?
cial order
represented by
their
parents,
then their contact with
global
influences
merits
special
attention.26
Initially, writing
on
generations
focused on the role of
ideas,
on
generations
as carriers of the
spirit
of an
age
or creators of new intellectual movements and
styles.
Current
writing
is less
likely
to make the connection with
high
culture
in order to describe an entire era and more inclined to treat
youth
culture as a
distinctive
factor,
somewhat isolated in its own
society yet global,
subversive,
and influential.27 Whether or not
youth
cultures travel more
easily
than cul?
ture
generally, carry
more or less
influence,
and have distinctive
meanings
are
important
issues for the
global history
of childhood.
Thus the
study
of children and childhood even in a
single place
and time can
draw
(as many
admirable studies
do)
on a
variety
of
disciplines,
theories,
and
broad
topics
that relate childhood
experience
and
global history.
Childhood,
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856
journal
of social
history
summer 2005
after
all,
describes a condition universal to human
kind,
one buffeted and altered
by
waves of
diffusion,
prodded
and constrained
by
webs of
connection,
both
product
and
agent
of cultural encounters.
University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor
Department of History
Ann
Arbor,
MI 48109
ENDNOTES
1. The
emphasis,
however,
is
usually
on economics and then
politics,
as in Colin
Hay
and David
Marsh, Demystifying
Globalization (New York, 2000).
But see
Arjun Appadurai,
Modernity
at
Large:
Cultural Dimensions
of
Globalization
(Minneapolis, 1996)
and A.G.
Hopkins,
ed.
Globalization
in World
History
(London, 2002).
2. Bruce Mazlish has been a leader in new
global history beginning
with Bruce Ma-
ziish and
Ralph Buultjens, eds., Conceptualizing
Gbbal
History (Boulder, 1993),
and note
the tolerant
diversity
of
approach among
these
essays.
See also
Mazlish, "Comparing
Global to World
History,"
The
Journal of Interdisciplinary History.
28:3
(1998),
385-95
and
http://www.newglobalhistory.com/.
3.
Philippe
Aries,
Centuries
of
Childhood
(New York, 1965)
is of course the classic work.
For a more recent and more
sociological
view,
Alison
James
and Alan
Prout, eds.,
Con?
structing
and
Reconstructing
Childhood
(London, 1997).
4.
Women's studies in
particular
has much to offer research on
globalization
and child?
hood; yet
even works that address
closely
related themes tend not to reach
beyond
wo?
men's lives to treat
globalization
and
childhood,
see Paloma de
Villota, ed., Globalizacion
a
Que
Precio: El
Imparto
en la
Mujeres
del Norte
y
del Sur
(Barceiona, 2001).
5. Peter van der
Veer, ed.,
Conversion to Modemities: The
Globalization
of Christianity
(London, 1996); Raymond Grew, "Seeking
the Cultural Context of
Fundamentalisms,"
in Martin
Marty
and R. Scott
Appleby,
eds., Religion, Ethnicity,
and
Self Identity:
Nations
in Transition
(Hanover, N.H., 1997),
19-34.
6. There is a vast and
stimulating anthropological
and historical literature on the im?
pact
of Christian missionaries; J.S.
Cummins, ed., Christianity
and
Missions, 1450-1800
(Aidershot,
Great
Britain, 1997) suggests something
of its
range
even for the
early
mod?
ern
period.
7. David
Archard, Children, Rights,
and Childhood
(London, 1993); Jo Boyden
Children:
Rights
and
Responsibilities (London, 1985); Philip
Aiston, Stephen
Parker, John Seymour,
eds., Children, Rights,
and the Law
(Oxford, 1982);
Stuart C.
Aiken,
"Global Crises of
Childhood:
rights, justice,
and the unchildlike
child,"
Area 33:2
(June, 2001), 119-27,
emphasizes
the
disruptive
effects ofthe
spread
of
capitalist
markets on "the
global
child."
As an
example
of
global
claims,
see UNICEF's
publication,
Gerson
Lansdown,
A Model
for
Action: The Children's
Rights Development
Unit:
Promoting
the Convention on the
Rights
of
the Child in the United
Kingdom (Florence, 1996).
8. Pierrette
Hondagnen-Sotel
and Ernestine
Avila,
"I'm
Here,
But I'm There: The
Meanings
of Latina Transnational
Motherhood,"
Gender and
Society
2:5
(October, 1997),
548-71; Kimberly J. Mortgan
and Kathrin
Zippel,
"Paid to Care: The
Origins
and Effects
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ON SEEKING GLOBAL HISTORY'S INNER CHILD 857
of Care Leave Policies in Western
Europe,"
Social Politics: International Studies in
Gender,
State,
and
Society
10:1
(Spring 2003), 49-85;
Rhacel Salazar
Parrenas,
The Global Ser?
vants:
Migrant Filipina
Domestic Workers in Rome and Los
Angeles (Stanford, 2000);
San-
ling Wong,
"Diverted
Mothering: Representations
of
Caregivers
of Color in the
Age
of
Multiculturalism,"
in E.
Glenn,
G.
Chang,
and L.
Forcey, eds.,
Mothering: Ideology,
Ex?
perience,
and
Agency
(London, 1997); Julia Wrigley,
Other
People's
Children: An Intimate
Account
of
the Dilemmas
Facing
Middle Class Parents and the Women
They
Hire to Raise
Their Children
(New York, 1995).
9. Sharon
Stephens,
Children and the Politics
of
Culture
(Princeton, 1995).
10. I use webs of connection in a more formal and limited sense than the broader
metaphor effectively employed
in one of the most
important
of recent
works, J.R.
Mc?
Neill and William H.
McNeill,
The Human Web: A
Bird's-Eye
View
of
World
History
(New
York, 2003).
11.
Hugh Cunningham
and Pier Paolo
Viazzo, eds.,
Child Labour in Historical
Perspec?
tive,
1800-1985
(Florence, 1996)
is an
introductory overview, appropriately sponsored by
UNICEF;
and from the International Labour
Office, Combatting
Child Labour
(Geneva,
1988). Olga Nieuwenhuys,
Children's
Llifeworlds: Gender,Welfare
and Labour in the Devel-
oping
World
(London, 1994).
12.
Jean-Pierre
Warnier,
Lamondialisationdelaculture
(Paris, 2003); Jonathan Friedman,
Cultural
Identity
and Global Process
(London, 1994);
Stuart
Hall,
David
Held,
and
Tony
McGrew, Modernity
and Its Futures
(Cambridge, Eng., 1992); Anthony
D
King, ed.,
Cul?
ture, Globalization
and the
World-System: Contemporary
Conditions
for
the
Representation of
Identity (Minneapolis,
1997).
13. See Reuven Kahane in collaboration with Tamar
Rapoport,
The
Origins of
Postmod?
ern Youth:
Informal
Youth Movements in a
Comparative Perspective (New York, 1997).
14-
Ann Laura
Stoler,
Children on the
Imperial
Divide: Sentiments and
Citizenship
in Colo?
nial Southeast Asia
(Ann Arbor, 1995)
is an
important example.
15. Sharon
Stephens,
ed.,
Children and the Politics
of
Culture
(Princeton, 1995).
16. For an
example,
see Doreen
Massey,
"The
Spatial
Consciousness of Youth
Cultures,"
in
Tracey
Skelton and Gil
Valentine, eds.,
Cool Places:
Geographies of
Youth Cultures
(Lon?
don, 1998),
121-29.
17.
Comparing youth
in New York
City
and the
Sudan,
Cindi
Katz, "Disintegrating
Developments:
Global Economic
Restructuring
and the
Eroding
of
Ecologies
of
Youth,"
in Skelton and
Valentine, eds.,
Cool
Places, 130-44,
finds that in both
places
the effect
of international
capitalism
and
globalized
cultural
production
has been that
people
no
longer
learn when children the
things they
will need to know as adults.
18.
Although many
have made this
point,
it is still too
easily
overlooked.
Among
the
earliest and most influential formulations have been
by
Roland Robertson in
many
works;
among
them, Globalization:
Social
Theory
and Global Culture
(London, 1992),
where he
speaks
of the "universalism of
particularism
and the
particularization
of
universalism,"
102. See also Kevin R.
Cox, ed., Spaces of
Globalization: Reasserting
the Power
ofthe
Local
(New York, 1997);
and
Christophe
Demaziere, ed.,
Du local au
global:
Les initiatives locales
pour
le
developpement economique
en
Europe
et en
Amerique
(Paris, 1996).
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858
journal
of social
history
summer 2005
19. Now a decade
old,
Childhood: A Global
Journal of
Child Research
publishes
a
great
deal of research
open
to a
global
historical framework.
20. These
points
are made
by
Tamara K. Hareven in her useful
summary
of the
present
state of
family history,
"The
Impact
of the
History
of the
Family
and the Life Course on
the
Sociology
of the
Family,"
in Fredrik
Engelstad
and
Ragnvald
Kallenber, eds,
Social
Time and Social
Change: Perspectives
on
Sociohgy
and
History (Oslo, 1999), 130-54.
21. A classic
presentation
is Herbert
Moller,
"Youth as a Force in the Modern
World,"
Comparative
Studies in
Society
and
History
10:3
(April, 1967),
237-60.
22.
Lajeunesse
et ses mouvements:
Influence
sur Vevolution des societes aux xixe et xxe sie-
cles
(Paris, 1992), published by
the Commission Internationale d'Histoire des Mouve?
ments Sociaux et des Structures
Sociales,
has brief
reports
on two dozen countries.
George
Paloczi-Horwath,
Youth
Up
in Arms: A Political and Social World
Survey
(London, 1971)
and Friedrich
Heer,
Revolutions
ofOur
Time:
Challenge of
Youth
(London, 1974)
are more
popular surveys.
23. Karl
Mannheim,
"The Problem of Generations" in
Essays
on the
Sociobgy ofKnowU
edge (first
German
edition, 1928); Jose Ortega y Gasset,
The Theme
of
our Time
(first
Spanish
edition
1938),
which
begins
with "The Idea of Generations" and
expands
the
theme
through subsequent chapters.
24-
Antony Esler, ed.,
The Youth Revolution: The
Conflict of
Generations in Modern His-
tory (New York, 1974
and Generational Studies: A Basic
Bibliography (mimeograph,
1979).
The
Journal of
Social Issues in
1974,
vol.
22,
devoted two numbers to the
question
of
gen?
erations;
Daedalus had a
special
issue, 107:4,
in
1978;
as did XXe
Siecle,
no.
22,
in 1989.
Alan B.
Spitzer,
"The Historical Problem of
Generations,"
American Historical Review 78:
2
(December, 1973),
1353-85 finds the
concept
valuable while
acknowledging
all its dif?
ficulties.
Julian
Marias,
Generations: a Historical Method
(Tuscaioosa, 1970)
took
up
the
ideas of
Ortega.
25. Vincent
Drouin, Enquete
sur les
generations
et la
politique,
1958-1995
(Paris, 1995)
emphasizes
the
cleavage
between those bom before and after World War
II,
but in
Italy
the
response
to
globalization appears
not to be
generational,
Enrico Maria
Tacchi,
"Pro-
fessionisti milanesi e
globalizzazione:
relazioni
internazionali, tecnologie
e
atteggiamenti
culturali,"
in Vincenzo
Cesareo, ed, Globalizzoione
e contesti locali: una recerca sulla realta
italiana
(Milan, 2000),
323-70.
Notable,
too
however,
is the remarkable shift in attitudes
toward
family among
successive
generations
of Asian
migrants
to
Hawaii,
Shin
Pyo Kang,
The East Asian Culture and Its
Transformation
in the West
(Seoui, 1978),
81-109.
26. Consider the
potential implications
of
youth
on the movements of resistance dis?
cussed in
Jackie
Smith and Hank
Johnston,
eds., Ghbalization
and Resistance: Transna?
tional Dimensions
of
Social Movements.
(Lanham, Maryland, 2002).
27. Some recent
examples:
Vered Amit-Talal and Helena
Wulff, eds.,
Youth Cultures:
A Cross Cultural
Perspective
London, 1995); Johan
Fornas and Goren
Bolin, eds.,
Youth
Culture in Late
Modernity (London, 1995);
Anne-Marie
Sohn, Age
tendre et tete de bois:
histoire
desjeunes
des annees 1960
(Paris, 2001); Kaspar
Maase,
BRAVO Amerika: Erkun-
dungen
zur
Jugenkulture
der
BundesrepubUk
in den
filnfziger
Jahren (Hamberg, 1992);
Uta
G,
Poiger, Jazz, Rock,
and Rebels: Cold War Politics and American Culture in a Divided
Germany (Berkeley, 2000);
Roberto
Cartocci,
Diventare
grandi
in
tempi
di cinismo: idenuta
nazionale
tra i
giovani
italiani
(Bologna,
2002);
David
J. Jackson,
Entertainment and Politics:
The
Influence ofPop
Culture on Youth and Political Socialization (New York, 2004).
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