Joanne Corbin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195333619
- eISBN:
- 9780199918195
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195333619.003.0022
- Subject:
- Social Work, Communities and Organizations
Hundreds of thousands of children under the age of eighteen are involved in armed groups in 37% of the world's countries and territories. This chapter reviews the key issues affecting these children, ...
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Hundreds of thousands of children under the age of eighteen are involved in armed groups in 37% of the world's countries and territories. This chapter reviews the key issues affecting these children, including the historical involvement of children in war, the challenge of universal age-based criteria, children's experiences in armed conflicts, and the process of reintegration. Children are vulnerable to becoming child soldiers as a result of political, religious, ethnic, cultural, economic, and social instability in their countries. Social workers must gain as full an understanding as they can of the specific context of armed conflict and the subjective experiences of child soldiers in order to work effectively with such children, their families, and their communities.Less
Hundreds of thousands of children under the age of eighteen are involved in armed groups in 37% of the world's countries and territories. This chapter reviews the key issues affecting these children, including the historical involvement of children in war, the challenge of universal age-based criteria, children's experiences in armed conflicts, and the process of reintegration. Children are vulnerable to becoming child soldiers as a result of political, religious, ethnic, cultural, economic, and social instability in their countries. Social workers must gain as full an understanding as they can of the specific context of armed conflict and the subjective experiences of child soldiers in order to work effectively with such children, their families, and their communities.
Susan Shepler
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814724965
- eISBN:
- 9780814760192
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724965.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This book examines the reintegration of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone. Based on eighteen months of participant-observer ethnographic fieldwork and ten years of follow-up research, the book ...
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This book examines the reintegration of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone. Based on eighteen months of participant-observer ethnographic fieldwork and ten years of follow-up research, the book argues that there is a fundamental disconnect between the Western idea of the child soldier and the individual lived experiences of the child soldiers of Sierra Leone. It contends that the reintegration of former child soldiers is a political process having to do with changing notions of childhood as one of the central structures of society. For most Westerners the tragedy of the idea of “child soldier” centers on perceptions of lost and violated innocence. In contrast, the book finds that for most Sierra Leoneans, the problem is not lost innocence but the horror of being separated from one's family and the resulting generational break in youth education. Further, it argues that Sierra Leonean former child soldiers find themselves forced to strategically perform (or refuse to perform) as the “child soldier” which Western human rights initiatives expect in order to most effectively gain access to the resources available for their social reintegration. The strategies don't always work—in some cases Western human rights initiatives do more harm than good. While this book focuses on the well-known case of child soldiers in Sierra Leone, it speaks to the larger concerns of childhood studies with a detailed ethnography of people struggling over the situated meaning of the categories of childhood.Less
This book examines the reintegration of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone. Based on eighteen months of participant-observer ethnographic fieldwork and ten years of follow-up research, the book argues that there is a fundamental disconnect between the Western idea of the child soldier and the individual lived experiences of the child soldiers of Sierra Leone. It contends that the reintegration of former child soldiers is a political process having to do with changing notions of childhood as one of the central structures of society. For most Westerners the tragedy of the idea of “child soldier” centers on perceptions of lost and violated innocence. In contrast, the book finds that for most Sierra Leoneans, the problem is not lost innocence but the horror of being separated from one's family and the resulting generational break in youth education. Further, it argues that Sierra Leonean former child soldiers find themselves forced to strategically perform (or refuse to perform) as the “child soldier” which Western human rights initiatives expect in order to most effectively gain access to the resources available for their social reintegration. The strategies don't always work—in some cases Western human rights initiatives do more harm than good. While this book focuses on the well-known case of child soldiers in Sierra Leone, it speaks to the larger concerns of childhood studies with a detailed ethnography of people struggling over the situated meaning of the categories of childhood.
Edward Orozco Flores
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479850099
- eISBN:
- 9781479818129
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479850099.003.0006
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
This chapter explores different platforms for public speaking, such as group therapy or bible studies, and how they offer recovering gang members opportunities to experience reform from gang life, as ...
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This chapter explores different platforms for public speaking, such as group therapy or bible studies, and how they offer recovering gang members opportunities to experience reform from gang life, as well as to earn legitimacy for being reformed. The public talk of gang recovery invited situated performances that rearticulated Chicano masculinity. Recovering gang members used public talk to advance “redemption scripts” and construct reformed barrio masculinity, facilitating recovery from gang life and social reintegration. The chapter probes deeper into how this gendered redemption sequence operates as a discursive process. Gang recovery programs, through the spaces they provide for public talk, centrally negotiate masculinity and facilitate reform. Public talk in gang recovery reformulates Chicano gang masculinity into warm, nurturing expressions. During these sessions, the recovering gang members talk about their personal lives and encourage each other to talk about family and to feel empathy for family members.Less
This chapter explores different platforms for public speaking, such as group therapy or bible studies, and how they offer recovering gang members opportunities to experience reform from gang life, as well as to earn legitimacy for being reformed. The public talk of gang recovery invited situated performances that rearticulated Chicano masculinity. Recovering gang members used public talk to advance “redemption scripts” and construct reformed barrio masculinity, facilitating recovery from gang life and social reintegration. The chapter probes deeper into how this gendered redemption sequence operates as a discursive process. Gang recovery programs, through the spaces they provide for public talk, centrally negotiate masculinity and facilitate reform. Public talk in gang recovery reformulates Chicano gang masculinity into warm, nurturing expressions. During these sessions, the recovering gang members talk about their personal lives and encourage each other to talk about family and to feel empathy for family members.
Brian K. Feltman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469619934
- eISBN:
- 9781469623160
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469619934.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book explores the emasculation of surrender and the efforts of German military prisoners held in the UK from 1914 to 1920 to overcome the stigma of captivity. It was not combat deaths that ...
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This book explores the emasculation of surrender and the efforts of German military prisoners held in the UK from 1914 to 1920 to overcome the stigma of captivity. It was not combat deaths that crippled the German army in autumn 1918 but rather waves of surrenders that occurred among its troops in the war's final months. More than 325,000 German soldiers surrendered to the British during the Great War, at least 132,000 of whom spent some portion of their captivity in British military camps. Drawing upon a wide range of materials such as unpublished memoirs, capture reports, camp newspapers, and previously unused letters written by prisoners and their families, this book follows prisoners from capture through their attempts at social reintegration following their return to Germany. It considers a soldier's manhood in relation to his status as a defender of the German nation, as well as his existence as a prisoner within the context of his efforts to reestablish a place within the national community.Less
This book explores the emasculation of surrender and the efforts of German military prisoners held in the UK from 1914 to 1920 to overcome the stigma of captivity. It was not combat deaths that crippled the German army in autumn 1918 but rather waves of surrenders that occurred among its troops in the war's final months. More than 325,000 German soldiers surrendered to the British during the Great War, at least 132,000 of whom spent some portion of their captivity in British military camps. Drawing upon a wide range of materials such as unpublished memoirs, capture reports, camp newspapers, and previously unused letters written by prisoners and their families, this book follows prisoners from capture through their attempts at social reintegration following their return to Germany. It considers a soldier's manhood in relation to his status as a defender of the German nation, as well as his existence as a prisoner within the context of his efforts to reestablish a place within the national community.
Brian K. Feltman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469619934
- eISBN:
- 9781469623160
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469619934.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the hardships faced by German soldiers held captive by the British during the Great War as they attempted to gain financial compensation and recognition as honorable veterans in ...
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This chapter examines the hardships faced by German soldiers held captive by the British during the Great War as they attempted to gain financial compensation and recognition as honorable veterans in the Weimar Republic. The stigma of captivity remained with the German prisoners in the years after repatriation and served as an obstacle to full social reintegration. Many observers continued to associate the mass surrenders of the summer and autumn of 1918 with the German army's defeat and considered former prisoners of war (POWs) to be second class soldiers. This chapter considers the prisoners' battle for respect and redemption following repatriation and eventual alliance with Adolf Hitler and National Socialism, as well as the persistence of the sacrificial masculine standard that marginalized POWs.Less
This chapter examines the hardships faced by German soldiers held captive by the British during the Great War as they attempted to gain financial compensation and recognition as honorable veterans in the Weimar Republic. The stigma of captivity remained with the German prisoners in the years after repatriation and served as an obstacle to full social reintegration. Many observers continued to associate the mass surrenders of the summer and autumn of 1918 with the German army's defeat and considered former prisoners of war (POWs) to be second class soldiers. This chapter considers the prisoners' battle for respect and redemption following repatriation and eventual alliance with Adolf Hitler and National Socialism, as well as the persistence of the sacrificial masculine standard that marginalized POWs.
