Ambiguous Childhoods: Peer Socialisation, Schooling and Agency in a Zambian Village

Nana Clemensen

Published by Berghahn Books 2019

Ambiguous Childhoods

Peer Socialisation, Schooling and Agency in a Zambian Village

Nana Clemensen

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781789203523

Overview
Contents

About this book

Growing up with social and economic upheaval in the peripheries of global neoliberalism, children in rural Zambia are presented with diverging social and moral protocols across homes, classrooms, church halls, and the streets. Mostly unmonitored by adults, they explore the ambiguities of adult life in playful interactions with their siblings and kin across gender and age. Drawing on rich linguistic-ethnographic details of such interactions combined with observations of school and household procedures, the author provides a rare insight into the lives, voices, and learning paths of children in a rural African setting.

Author / Editor information

Nana Clemensen is Associate Professor of Educational Anthropology at Aarhus University, Denmark. Her recent publications include Managing freedom: Children and parents negotiating safety and autonomy in a Copenhagen housing cooperative (Anthropology and Education Quarterly 2019).

Reviews

“This is a well-written, accessible ethnographic case study of children’s everyday lives in Hang’ombe village in Zambia… a valuable addition to child-centred ethnography in Africa.” • Alice Mitchell, University of Bristol

“What is so exciting about this book is that it describes the entire experience of socialization for 6–10-year-old children in one Zambian village, placing their experience in school within the larger framework of both children and the adults in their lives. Not very many studies anywhere in the world do that.” • Kathryn Anderson-Levitt, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Map Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction. Growing up in Hang’ombe Village Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 Approaching Children’s Perspectives: Reflections on Fieldwork Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
Chapter 2 ‘Know a Dead Man’s Feet by His Child’: Family Life in a Changing Society Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
Chapter 3 ‘Is That How You Insult in Your House?’ Linguistic Agency among Hang’ombe Children Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Chapter 4 The Distant Power of School: Academic Practices in Daily Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Conclusion. Past and Future Perspectives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 168
Keywords: world studies; zambia; social analysis; economics; social upheaval; neoliberalism; globalism; zambian children; unmonitored children; child relationships; child studies; linguistics; ethnography; ethnographics; rural african life; growing up in rural africa; children; sociology

eBook

Published: September 1, 2019
ISBN: 9781789203523