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On Childhood and Risk: An Exploration of Children's Everyday Experiences in Rural Peru
Author(s) -
Crivello Gina,
Boyden Jo
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
children and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-0860
pISSN - 0951-0605
DOI - 10.1111/j.1099-0860.2012.00465.x
Subject(s) - neglect , poverty , developmental psychology , psychology , early childhood , ethnography , rural area , sociology , social psychology , economic growth , political science , psychiatry , economics , law , anthropology
Drawing on data from Peru, this article explores how poverty mediates diverse risks in rural children's lives. It offers four main arguments. First, risk is not simply a feature of ‘extraordinary’ childhoods, but integral to everyday, ‘ordinary’ lives. Second, children's responses to adversity are crucially shaped by sociomoral considerations. Third, children participate actively in household risk mitigation, their engagement structured by individual (biographical) and collective factors. Fourth, changing circumstances present new opportunities and challenges for children living with adversity. Current approaches focusing on so‐called ‘objective’ risks neglect children's own priorities and subjective experiences.