Child labour is still prevalent, particularly in the Global South. This workshop aims to deepen the understanding of child labour from an interdisciplinary and international comparative perspective. The focus is on socio-economic structures, legal frameworks, and historical aspects.
The global research landscape highlights the persistent prevalence of child labour and its continuing impact on children and society, particularly in the Global South. In the Global North, in comparison, child labour is largely overlooked, although there has recently been significant discussion regarding children's involvement in commercial social media activities, often analysed through the lens of childhood commodification.
This workshop convenes scholars from diverse disciplines − including anthropology, education, social psychology, and sociology − to deepen understanding of child labour from an interdisciplinary and international comparative perspective. The focus is on examining the socio-economic structures, legal frameworks, and historical aspects of child labour, as well as how children’s own perspectives shape their position within the generational order and in working societies. The discussion will cover the history of child labour, empirical findings on its drivers, and challenges faced by societies and children.
The following questions will be discussed:
Opening
Aschalew Abeje Lakew, Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia) & College for Social Sciences and Humanities (Germany);
Anja Tervooren, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)
Moderator: Aschalew Abeje Lakew, Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia) & College for Social Sciences and Humanities (Germany)
9:30
Children's Views on Children's Work
Antje Ruhmann, German Institute for Human Rights (Germany)
10:25
Coffee break
10:45
Child Labour as a Household Survival Strategy: Family Decisions Under Economic Strain
Addisu Gedilu, University of Gondar (Ethiopia)
Break
Moderator: Anja Tervooren, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)
12:30
Kidfluencing Between Child Work and Child Labour: Commodification Processes in Platform-Based Childhood Economies
Caterina Rohde-Abuba, Berlin School of Economics and Law (Germany)
13:25
Child Bondage in the Traditional Practice of Qenja in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia
Aschalew Abeje Lakew, Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia) & College for Social Sciences and Humanities (Germany)
Closing Remarks: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges in the Research on Child Labour
End of workshop
Prof. Aschalew Abeje Lakew
Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia) | Social Anthropology, Migration Studies
E-mail: aschalew.lakew@college-uaruhr.de
Aschalew Abeje Lakew is Associate Professor of Migration Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia). He has published influential works in his area of specialisation, with a particular emphasis on the underlying mechanisms of internal and transnational migration, as well as the challenges and opportunities related to these phenomena on the social structure in Ethiopia, especially the Amhara Region. Since 2002 he has been engaged in various positions as a graduate assistant, lecturer, and assistant professor in the Department of Social Anthropology at Bahir Dar University. In this capacity, he has been involved in research projects and community engagement initiatives, for instance on combating child migration and human trafficking in Ethiopia, and he has taught several courses on theories of anthropology, qualitative / ethnographic research methods, transnationalism and migration studies. In an administrative role, he has served as Vice-Dean for Research and Community Services of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Bahir Dar University.
Anja Tervooren is Full Professor of Education with a focus on childhood research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Her work focuses on childhood and difference, theories and methodology in educational studies, as well as gender and disability in childhood and youth. Currently, she is working with a group of researchers at the universities Wuppertal and Duisburg-Essen to investigate the (de)institutionalisation of education. Her individual project investigates early childhood between child day care, and integration assistance. Moreover, she works on questions of methodology and specialises in the field of ethnography, with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches.
After completing her PhD in educational anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin on the topic of gender in childhood, Anja Tervooren worked at Goethe University Frankfurt and as a junior professor specialising in education and culture at the University of Hamburg. She is strongly involved in the German Educational Research Association (GERA) | Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft (DGfE), of which she was also Chair, and she has published numerous books and essays on the fundamentals of educational science and the topic of unequal upbringing.