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Globalization, Individualization and Childhood: The Challenge for Social Work

Abstract This paper will review current developments in our understanding of the trends affecting childhood; it will link these with an analysis of the contradictory ways in which state agencies conceptualise children; it will go on to sketch out an appropriate framework for understanding childhood for professionals; and it will conclude with a brief discussion of the implications for social work practice. Briefly, the argument will be developed that childhood and children have been subject to two contradictory pressures: globalisation and individualisation. These, in turn, have had a complex impact on the experience of children, by promoting common aspirations whilst also creating a sense of personal powerlessness. In the context of human services, this is further compounded by the contrasting treatment of children by different agencies: for example, schools which treat them as passive recipients of knowledge and youth justice agencies which treat them as active perpetrators of delinquency. The paper argues that a more rounded understanding of childhood is necessary, and that they should be recognised as: “consumers”, “interpreters” and “actors”. Rather than focus on any one of these elements, it is important to recognise that children continually exhibit each of these characteristics in the way that they live in, perceive and act on the external world. These are integral aspects of childhood itself, and social work professionals must base their interventions on an appreciation of this. For example, children should not be responded to onesidedly either as victims (or potential victims) of abuse, or, on the other hand, solely as potential or actual perpetrators of harmful behaviour. This consideration, in turn, poses a demand for social work to develop and apply a comprehensive framework for understanding of childhood itself, in order to improve practitioners' ability to work collaboratively with children and to empower them.