ABSTRACT
However, while both the original research project and conference focused only on Britain, this volume widens the scope considerably by looking at the work and labour of children in a range of different countries spanning North America, western Europe and Russia. In this respect we feel our book makes a distinctive contribution to recent and on-going debate. Not only do the various contributions extend across several different national contexts, they are united by their specific interest in the phenomenon of children’s work and labour in the ‘developed’ or ‘industrialised’ world. In one sense it may seem surprising that the issue of children’s work and labour should still be considered a legitimate source of research and enquiry in what are generally speaking very wealthy countries, where the labour of children is usually regarded as a past evil or somebody else’s ‘problem’.But the very fact that we have been able to include contributions from researchers that range from the large and prosperous economies of the United States of America and Germany, through to economies like Russia ‘in transition’ to a free market, is testimony to the fact that in many countries throughout the ‘developed’world, the act of labouring among children still constitutes a ‘normal’ aspect of their everyday lives.
