This dissertation examines the Conventions and Recommendations to regulate the minimum age for admission to employment between the years 1919 and 1973 – the ILO minimum age campaign. The adoption process has been studied in its chronological and historical context. The dissertation has three points of departure: that childhood is a historical construction and that the legal material is part of that construction; that the minimum age campaign suffered from a ‘hang-over-from-history’, namely, the history of Western industrialisation during the 19th and early 20th centuries; and, finally, that children had a subordinate and weak position in the minimum age campaign. The study was organised around five central themes: (1) the over-all theme of predominant conceptions of children and work; (2) the relationship between industrialised and colonised and developing nations; (3) the relationship between the child, the family and the state; (4) minimum age; and (5) the importance of school. The most important results of the study are that: (1) In view of the revolutionary changes during the 20th century the continuity in the minimum age campaign was remarkable. In 1919, the ‘child labour problem’ was an issue mainly for the Western industrialised word. By the end of the campaign, in 1973, the transformations in societies during the century had made ‘the child labour problem’ an issue mainly for the developing world and with different conditions and implications in many respects. The content and ‘grammar’ of the minimum age campaign was however never really challenged. (2) The study has verified that the minimum age campaign suffered from a ‘hang-over-from history’. The campaign built directly on the Western industrial experience during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Western dominance in the ILO, the legal transplants, and the roots in the labour movement all contributed to the ‘hang-over’. (3) The minimum age campaign was modelled on the ‘norm of the Western industrialised childhood’. The norms and realities of childhood in other parts of the world were neglected of considered as provisional and inferior phases in relation to the Western ‘norm’. In this way, there were two separate childhoods in the minimum age campaign: ‘the normal’ childhood conceived for Western conditions and ‘the other’ childhood conceived for the ‘imperfect’ conditions of poor children in the colonised and developing nations.(4) In the minimum age campaign the ‘best interests of the child’ was negotiable and was subordinated in case of conflict with other interests.

My dissertation critiques Western culture’s vertical command of “growing up” to adult completion (rational, heterosexual, married, wealthy, professionally successful) as a reductionist itinerary of human movement leading to subjective sedimentations. Rather, my project proposes ways of “moving rhizomatically” by which it advances a notion of a machinic identity that moves continuously, contingently, and waywardly along less vertical, less excruciating and more horizontal, life-affirmative trails. To this end, my thesis proposes a “rhizomatic semiosis” as extrapolated from the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari to put forward a notion of language and, by implication, subjectivity, as dynamic and metamorphic. Rather than trying to figure out who the child is or what it experiences consciously, my project wishes to embrace an elusiveness at the heart of subjectivity to argue for continued identity creation beyond the apparently confining parameters of adulthood. This dissertation, then, is about the need to re-examine our ways of growing beyond the lines of teleological progression. By turning to Deleuze’s child, an intangible one that “makes desperate attempts to carry out a performance that the psychoanalyst totally misconstrues” (A Thousand Plateaus 13), I wish to shift focus away from the hierarchical, binary, and ideal model of “growing up” and toward a notion of movement that makes way for plural identities in their becoming. This endeavour reveals itself in particular in the work of John Wray, Todd Field, Peter Cameron, Sara Prichard, Michael Cunningham, and Cormac McCarthy, whose work has received little or no attention at all—a lacuna in research that exists perhaps due to these artists’ innovative approach to a minor literature that promotes the notion of a machinic self and questions the dominant modes of Western culture’s literature for, around, and of children.

My dissertation critiques Western culture’s vertical command of “growing up” to adult completion (rational, heterosexual, married, wealthy, professionally successful) as a reductionist itinerary of human movement leading to subjective sedimentations. Rather, my project proposes ways of “moving rhizomatically” by which it advances a notion of a machinic identity that moves continuously, contingently, and waywardly along less vertical, less excruciating and more horizontal, life-affirmative trails. To this end, my thesis proposes a “rhizomatic semiosis” as extrapolated from the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari to put forward a notion of language and, by implication, subjectivity, as dynamic and metamorphic. Rather than trying to figure out who the child is or what it experiences consciously, my project wishes to embrace an elusiveness at the heart of subjectivity to argue for continued identity creation beyond the apparently confining parameters of adulthood. This dissertation, then, is about the need to re-examine our ways of growing beyond the lines of teleological progression. By turning to Deleuze’s child, an intangible one that “makes desperate attempts to carry out a performance that the psychoanalyst totally misconstrues” (A Thousand Plateaus 13), I wish to shift focus away from the hierarchical, binary, and ideal model of “growing up” and toward a notion of movement that makes way for plural identities in their becoming. This endeavour reveals itself in particular in the work of John Wray, Todd Field, Peter Cameron, Sara Prichard, Michael Cunningham, and Cormac McCarthy, whose work has received little or no attention at all—a lacuna in research that exists perhaps due to these artists’ innovative approach to a minor literature that promotes the notion of a machinic self and questions the dominant modes of Western culture’s literature for, around, and of children.

No description available.

The Karretjie People, or Cart People are a peripatetic community and are descendants of the KhoeKhoen and San, the earliest inhabitants of the Karoo region in South Africa. As a landless and disempowered community they are dependent upon others for food and other basic necessities specifically, and other resources generally. Compared to children in South Africa generally, the Karretjie children are in every sense of the most severely deprived. Their fathers are by and large sheep-shearers, often their only specialised skill, and which is primarily required only on demand and on an irregular and/or seasonal basis. The children’s mothers as keepers of the karretjie (cart) overnight shack, with other adult caretakers, are without predictable income for most of the year. The service that the adult men deliver to the farming community necessitates continuous spatial mobility and is made possible by a cart and donkeys, which also enable them to adapt to changing circumstances. High levels of spatial mobility as well as economic demands on individual domestic units result in inventive utilisation of scarce resources and entails, amongst others, in children oscillating between different karretjie (cart) units.

Ce mémoire cherche à créer un dialogue entre les domaines de recherche du livre d’images et celui de recherches sur la paix afin d’exposer les différentes formes et fonctions des livres d’images pour la paix. Questionnant le pourquoi et le comment de ces œuvres, ce travail expose la façon et la manière avec lesquelles ces dernières contribuent à « l’alphabétisation de la paix » auprès des enfants et comment elles les motivent à agir en fonction de la paix. Les livres d’images constituent un média idéal pour éduquer les enfants à la paix. Très tôt dans le processus de socialisation, ces livres sauront transmettre et inculquer des concepts et aptitudes clefs et éventuellement ancrer dans l’esprit de l’enfant les valeurs d’une culture de la paix. Au centre de cette recherche est exposé le thème de la paix tel que traité à travers les œuvres de l’écrivaine autrichienne Mira Lobe (1913–1995). Par l’analyse de sept livres d’images pour la paix, ce travail explique quelles stratégies et méthodes littéraires, pédagogiques, sémiotiques, narratives et esthétiques sont employées par l’auteure pour réussir à bien présenter et à traiter de sujets politiques complexes et d’enjeux sociaux et humains parfois délicats et tabous à un jeune auditoire. Il montre également par quels moyens ces œuvres font naître l’empathie, une aversion pour la violence et comment elles pourront finalement amener les enfants à opter pour l’acte de la paix. En joignant et en mettant en relation les résultats et conclusions des deux champs de recherche observés dans ce travail, soit l’éducation à la paix et la recherche sur des livres d’images, il devient possible de démontrer comment Mira Lobe apporte, avec ses livres d’images pour la paix, une contribution universelle et intemporelle à l’éducation à la paix. / The purpose of this study is to lay the groundwork for a dialogue between the fields of picture book studies and peace education in order to highlight the different forms and functions of picture books for peace. This study shows how these books contribute to peace literacy in children and motivate them to act for peace, by looking at how and why they are written and how and why they work. Picture books are an ideal medium to educate children about peace. Very early in the childhood socialization process, these books can convey concepts and key skills and eventually instill in the child values rooted in a culture of peace. This research is based on the theme of peace as dealt with in the works of the Austrian author Maria Lobe (1913-1995). Seven peace picture books are analyzed to determine which strategies and literary, pedagogical, semiotic, narrative and aesthetic approaches the author used to deal with sometimes delicate and taboo complex human, political and social issues in her works for young audiences. The research also seeks to show how these works may help develop empathy, an aversion for violence and a desire for peace in children who may thus learn to choose peace and become peacemakers. The results and conclusions drawn from the fields of education and studies of picture books lead us to demonstrate how Mira Lobe, through her peace picture books, makes a universal and timeless contribution to peace education. / Diese Arbeit bringt Bilderbuch- und Friedensforschung erstmals systematisch in einen Dialog, um Formen und Funktionsweisen von der hier als „Friedensbilderbücher“ bezeichneten Medien aufzuzeigen. Sie stellt erstmals Fragen danach, wie und warum Friedensbilderbücher wirken, d.h. Kinder einerseits „friedensalphabetisieren“ und andererseits zum Friedenshandeln motivieren. Bilderbücher sind ein ideales Medium zur Friedenserziehung von Kindern. Schon früh während des Sozialisationsprozesses können jungen Menschen durch das Bilderbuch Friedensinhalte, Abneigung gegen Gewalt und alternative Wege der Konfliktlösung vermittelt und somit im kindlichen Geist die Werte einer Kultur des Friedens verankert werden. Im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit steht der friedenserzieherische Aspekt in den Bilderbüchern der österreichischen Kinder- und Jugendbuchautorin Mira Lobe (1913-1995). Mittels einer systematischen Analyse von sieben Friedensbilderbüchern wird untersucht, welcher literarischer, pädagogischer, semiotischer, narrativer und ästhetischer Strategien und Vorgangsweisen sich Mira Lobe bedient, um die Gratwanderung von politischen und tabuisierten Themen zur Kindgemäßheit zu reüssieren und um in Kindern Empathiebereitschaft und Gewaltabneigung zu induzieren, sie zum Friedenshandeln zu inspirieren und motivieren. Auch die Möglichkeiten der Friedenserziehung mittels der Bilder bzw. der Text-Bild-Interdependenz im Bilderbuch werden in diesem Hinblick untersucht. Der interdisziplinäre Zugang, nämlich die Verknüpfung von Erkenntnissen der Friedenserziehung mit den Einsichten der Bilderbuchforschung in die medienspezifischen Möglichkeiten des Bilderbuchs, macht es möglich aufzuzeigen, wie Mira Lobe mit ihren Friedensbilderbüchern einen universellen und zeitlosen Beitrag zur Friedenserziehung leistet.

Syftet var att undersöka hur barn i olika familjeformer ser på familjer, sin egen och andras. Intervjuer har genomförts med sammanlagt 22 barn varav elva kom från familjer med olikkönade och sammanboende föräldrar som fått barn på egen hand, nedan kallade relationsbarn, och övriga elva kom från familjer med en frivilligt ensamstående mamma som skaffat barn med hjälp av assisterad befruktning, nedan kallade femmisbarn. Barnens ålder varierade från tre år och tio månader till nio år och nio månader. Studien kan ses som en del av barndomsforskningen, där barns ses som kompetenta aktörer vars röster förtjänar att lyftas fram. En semistrukturerad intervjuguide låg till grund för intervjuerna där barnen ombads att måla sin egen och en annan familj. Barnens berättelser har analyserats med hjälp av tematisk analys. Resultatet visar att femmis- och relationsbarnens berättelser huvudsakligen liknar varandra samtidigt som vissa skillnader framkommer mellan grupperna. Det förkommer också stora individuella skillnader inom grupperna. En kärnfamiljsnorm är tydligt framträdande i både barnens prat och teckningar, samtidigt som barnen visar på en öppenhet kring olika familjeformer. I relationsbarnens berättelser omnämns far- och morföräldrar, föräldrars syskon och kusiner som släktingar medan femmisbarnen i större utsträckning inkluderar dessa samt husdjur som medlemmar i sina familjer. Gemensamt för alla barnen är att deras berättelser om familjelivet utgår från barnet och har barnet i fokus. I såväl femmis- som relationsbarnens prat om mammor och pappor framträder en bild av traditionella könsroller. Såväl relations- som femmisbarnens berättelser om familj är mestadels i linje med tidigare forskning kring barns syn på familj. Femmisbarnens inklusion av såväl husdjur som släktingar i familjen, kan vara ett resultat av att nätverket får en större betydelse hos de ensamstående föräldrarna vilket även setts i tidigare forskning. Den kärnfamiljsnorm som blev tydlig i barnens prat kan ses som en avspegling av de rådande normerna i samhället. Trots en ökad variation gällande familjeformer är kärnfamiljen fortfarande ett rådande ideal.

The Karretjie People, or Cart People are a peripatetic community and are descendants of the KhoeKhoen and San, the earliest inhabitants of the Karoo region in South Africa. As a landless and disempowered community they are dependent upon others for food and other basic necessities specifically, and other resources generally. Compared to children in South Africa generally, the Karretjie children are in every sense of the most severely deprived. Their fathers are by and large sheep-shearers, often their only specialised skill, and which is primarily required only on demand and on an irregular and/or seasonal basis. The children’s mothers as keepers of the karretjie (cart) overnight shack, with other adult caretakers, are without predictable income for most of the year. The service that the adult men deliver to the farming community necessitates continuous spatial mobility and is made possible by a cart and donkeys, which also enable them to adapt to changing circumstances. High levels of spatial mobility as well as economic demands on individual domestic units result in inventive utilisation of scarce resources and entails, amongst others, in children oscillating between different karretjie (cart) units.

This PhD Dissertation was completed through 2011 to 2016 and was nominated for a CAGS-UMI Distinguished Dissertation Award. / My dissertation explores transnational adoptions of black African children by white Western parents as a site through which to think about global affective relationality and transnational histories within intimate proximities. The image of an interracial, transnational family can seem to be a fulfillment of the potential for transcendent love symbolized by humanitarian fundraisers such as Live Aid— a love that collapses borders and brings together races in multicultural bliss. Furthermore, adoptions of African children can potentially challenge discursive systems of categorization that frame the black body as existing outside the body politic. At the same time, however, we cannot understand transnational adoption without taking into account the histories of power that make possible and potentially limit the contours of these affective orientations. Indeed, representations of a transnational family consisting particularly of black African children and white Western parents not only invoke the logic of white moral motherhood within the context of contemporary globalization; they also point to European philosophical traditions that presuppose the colonizer’s right to the black body. In this project, thus, I ask: what are the sociopolitical and cultural motivations behind the desire to express humanitarian love towards African children through the act of adoption? How might these motivations create avenues for exclusion and exploitation even as they create new geographies of belonging? To answer these questions, this project brings the affective domain of contemporary transnational adoption between African children and white American parents into conversation with histories of colonial transnational intimacies and the precarious lived experiences of classed and racialized individuals in the African postcolony. In challenging popular celebratory fictions of the transnational family, it critically examines not only the utopian aspirations and social costs of transnational adoption as a humanitarian project, but also the very affect produced and channeled through adoption as a humanitarian act. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / My dissertation takes a multidisciplinary approach to analyze transnational adoptions of black African children by white Western parents. It offers answers to the following questions: 1. How do the ghosts of colonialism, along with the violent realities of globalization, expose the inequities hidden within idealized humanitarian narratives of rescue underlying global adoptions while at the same time revealing their transformative potential? 2. How can we account for the experiences and psychic struggles of the African adoptee, and what do their contradictions of idealized Western narratives tell us about the fantasies and anxieties of their Western parents? Ultimately, I argue that while the transnational family suggests transformative transnational connections, Western humanitarian frameworks have also sought to manage the messiness of these connections, to fix white and black bodies into old colonial roles, and to exclude certain bodies, namely those of the African birth mothers, out of the affective realm of transnational adoption. At the same time, these attempts at management, I argue, only speak to the productive potential of these messy relations to transform and exceed colonial limitations.

Denna studie kan placeras inom barndomsforskningen, där barn ses som aktörer vars röster förtjänar att tas på allvar. Syftet var att undersöka regnbågsbarns syn på familj, sin egen familj och tillblivelse. Intervjuer har genomförts med tolv barn i åldern fem till åtta år som alla var samboende med två mammor. En semistrukturerad intervjuguide användes och barnen ombads att måla sin egen och en annan familj. Barnens tal har analyserats utifrån en diskursanalytisk ansats. Resultatet visar att regnbågsbarnen pratar om familj utifrån relationella band, emotionell närhet, att man bor och gör saker tillsammans. Barnen visar en öppenhet inför olika familjestrukturer. Föräldrar beskrivs som omhändertagande och mammors och pappors funktion sägs vara likvärdig. Pratet om den egna familjen och mammorna präglas av positiva beskrivningar men utmanas i ett fåtal berättelser genom att teman av konflikt lyfts. Majoriteten av barnen pratar om pappor och beskriver dessa dels utifrån ursprung och dels utifrån en relationell mening. En del barns prat framstår förvirrat kring dessa två aspekter av pappor. Barnen uppvisar svårigheter att närma sig prat om tillblivelse och använder begreppen frö och ägg i olika utsträckning. Majoriteten av barnen som pratar om frö berättar att det kommer från en man. Regnbågsbarnens sätt att prata om familj är i linje med tidigare forskning om barns syn på familj. Barnens öppenhet inför olika familjestrukturer kan ses som ett uttryck för att rättfärdiga den egna familjekonstellationen, alternativt visar det på en realistisk spegling av samhällets mångfald vad gäller familjeformer. Svårigheterna att prata om negativa erfarenheter inom den egna familjen visar på det problematiska att gå emot en dominerande diskurs av familj som harmonisk. Regnbågsbarnens prat kring att mammor och pappor är samma sak skiljer sig från tidigare forskning om barns syn på föräldrar och hur detta kan förstås diskuteras i uppsatsen. Den förvirring som en del barns prat kring att i en mening ha en pappa och i en annan inte, kan visa på att barnen behöver få stöd i att hitta en fungerande diskurs om vad en pappa är och skillnaden på en relationell pappa och en donator.