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ChildhoodDeployed examinesthe reintegration of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone. Based on eighteenmonths of participant-observer ethnographic fieldwork and ten years offollow-up research, the book argues that there is a fundamental disconnectbetween the Western idea of the child soldier and the individual livedexperiences of the child soldiers of Sierra Leone. Susan Shepler contends thatthe reintegration of former child soldiers is a political process havingto do with changing notions of childhood as one of the central structures ofsociety.Formost Westerners the tragedy of the idea of “child soldier” centersaround perceptions of lost and violated innocence. In contrast, Shepler findsthat for most Sierra Leoneans, the problem is not lost innocence but the horrorof being separated from one’s family and the resulting generational break inyouth education. Further, Shepler argues that Sierra Leonean former childsoldiers find themselves forced to strategically perform (or refuse to perform)as the“child soldier” Western human rights initiatives expect in order tomost effectively gain access to the resources available for their socialreintegration. The strategies don’t always work—in some cases, Shepler finds,Western human rights initiatives do more harm than good.Whilethis volume focuses on the well-known case of child soldiers in Sierra Leone,it speaks to the larger concerns of childhood studies with a detailedethnography of people struggling over the situated meaning of the categories ofchildhood.It offers an example of thecultural politics of childhood in action, in which the very definition ofchildhood is at stake and an important site of political contestation.
Children and war --- Child soldiers --- Reintegration. --- Sierra Leone --- History --- POLITICAL SCIENCE / General. --- HISTORY / Military / Other. --- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural.
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Life After Guns explores how ex-combatants and other post-war youth negotiated a depleted and difficult social and cultural landscape in the years following Liberia's fourteen-year bloody civil war. Unlike others who study child soldiers, Abby Hardgrove's ethnography looks at both former combatants and also the youth who were not recruited to fight. She focuses on the structural constraints and household and family organizations that either helped or limited opportunities as these young men grew into adulthood. Whether young men fought or not, and whether they had cultural capital before the war or not, family relations mattered a great deal in how they fared after the war.
Veteran reintegration --- Child soldiers --- Young men --- Men --- Young adults --- Boys --- Boys as soldiers --- Children as soldiers --- Soldiers --- Community reintegration, Veteran --- Post-deployment reintegration --- Reintegration, Veteran --- Veteran-community reintegration --- Veterans --- Resocialization --- Social conditions --- Reintegration --- Liberia --- Politics and government --- child, children, childhood, childhood studies, Liberia, child soldiers, civil war, war, violence, war culture, gun, guns, bullets, fighting, armed conflict, missile, combat, ground troops, troops, military.
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