The project was initiated in January 1998, led by a working group consisting of Gary Melton and Natalie Kaufman of the Consortium on Children, Family and the Law, and Irene Rizzini of the former Center for Research on Childhood (CESPI, now CIESPI). After the main principles and concepts being outlined, workshops were held in Cape Town in October 1998 and in Kiawah, South Carolina in December 1998. On these occasions, the project was further discussed and developed.
The project has resulted in a series of articles in international journals presenting the debate and work on a research agenda, together with the book “Globalization and Children: Exploring Potentials for Enhancing Opportunities in the Lives of Children and Youth”, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002, with specific contributions from several Childwatch International members edited by Natalie Kaufman and Irene Rizzini. The book offer guidelines to enable researchers, policy-makers and other child advocates to increase their attention to how global change is affecting children and what knowledge and interventions would be useful in understanding and developing policies likely to further the well-being of children.
As a CWI project, this ended in 2002. The work on these issues however continued both in the development of a partnership program between the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life and Center for Family Environments and inspired the thematic development of the conference Childhoods 2005 Oslo.
Contact persons:
Natalie Kaufman, University of South Carolina: lawk [at] mindspring.com
Irene Rizzini, Center for Research on Childhood, Brazil: rizzini [at] hexanet.com.br
List of Participants:
The working group in charge of the project consists of Gary Melton and Natalie Kaufman (Consortium on Children, Families and the Law, U.S.) and Irene Rizzini (Center for Research on Childhood, Brazil).
Resources on Public Policy concerning children:
See our Public Policy research page