{"product_id":"9780814770252","title":"Childhood Deployed","description":"\u003cp\u003eChildhood  Deployed 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. Susan Shepler 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  around perceptions of lost and violated innocence. In contrast, Shepler 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, Shepler argues that Sierra Leonean former child  soldiers find themselves forced to strategically perform (or refuse to perform)  as the\"child soldier\" 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, Shepler finds,  Western human rights initiatives do more harm than good.   While  this volume 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.It offers an example of the  cultural politics of childhood in action, in which the very definition of  childhood is at stake and an important site of political contestation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51185218453778,"sku":"9780814770252","price":56.22,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0508\/3093\/4173\/files\/9780814770252.jpg?v=1774734437","url":"https:\/\/bargainbooks.com.au\/products\/9780814770252","provider":"Bargain Books Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}