Abstract

RAUSKY, María Eugenia. The study of child labor and the challenges in its approach. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2021, vol.44, n.1, pp.317-340.  Epub Nov 22, 2021. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v44n1.77594.

For at least three decades, sociology has been consolidating in its interior an area of knowledge whose specific object of study is childhood. Enrolled in this field, this article aims to reconstruct some of the current discussions in the study of a phenomenon mainly explored by childhood scholars: labor activities carried out by children and adolescents. In particular, we analyze three disciplines: history, anthropology, and sociology of child-hood, exploring the advances and deficits in productions of Latin American countries and the rest of the world. It is assumed that such inquiry will systematize and update the developments of the field, seeking to clarify the challenges that the analysis of children's labor still poses for students of the subject.

Based on this objective, we will make a review of the different aspects that the field has been problematizing, that is, we will reconstruct what type of studies have been developed in recent years and based on these readings we will identify in what we believe that progress has been made and what are the pending aspects to be developed -because of its absence or its poor development-.

To carry out this work, we use a set of selected documents-articles, book chapters and conference communications-that we understand as relevant contributions to the analysis of the phenomenon. From the analysis it is concluded that the incorporation of a series of theoretical, methodological assumptions and certain empirical approaches would strengthen such studies.

Descriptors: childhood, child labour, cultural context, social sciences.

Keywords : advances; challenges; child labor; social sciences; sociological studies on childhood; theoretical approaches.

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