RESOURCES: Review - Why only the rich have the right to achildhood

This is the fourth key textbook for the Open University course on "childhood". Earlier texts considered definitions of childhood, locating childhood within broader contexts such as family and work, and the cultural worlds of children - their friendships, language and relationship to the media. This book examines the status of children in society.

What is most striking about the book is the phenomenal diversity of children's lives, circumstances and experiences, both within and between societies.

Indeed, one section on children in Brazil asserts that "childhood is the privilege of the rich", throwing into confusion the claim by the Swedish reformer Ellen Key that the 20th century would be the "century of the child". Writing in 1909, she anticipated that children would increasingly take their place as full and equal participants in society.

Childhood has certainly become more visible and now has independent international advocates, such as Unicef. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, formulated in 1989, set out a blueprint for children's rights and participation.

But I cannot help concluding, on reading this book, that just as childhood is the privilege of the rich, so children's rights are the privilege of rich nations. Where poverty and conflict ravage nations, children are often the first to suffer, in health and education, and as victims and conscripts in warfare.

Yet despite the often-assumed vulnerability of children, this book is also a testament to their resilience and fortitude in the face of multiple adversities. It provides a powerful rationale for the strong inclusion of children in decision-making on issues that affect their lives: something addressed by Perpetua Kirby and Martin Woodhead in the final chapter.

Like most Open University textbooks, this tome was undoubtedly long in its making. The result is that it provides a thorough and comprehensive overview of the changing conditions of children in all corners of the world, illustrating different perspectives and contemporary debates through the use of photographs, readings and learner-centred activities.

For me, the contrast between the indoctrinated children of the Khmer Rouge and the liberationist children of Soweto was deeply stirring, but different comparisons and contrasts will strike others equally. All point to the fact that, beneath the veneer of globalisation and international aspirations, "childhood" continues to carry very different meanings in different local environments.

- Changing Childhoods: local and global; Edited by Heather Montgomery, Rachel Burr and Martin Woodhead; Published by Wiley in association with The Open University 2003; Price 24.95; ISBN 0 470 84695 X

- Reviewed by Howard Williamson, senior research associate at the school of social sciences, Cardiff University.