Teaching rights and responsibilities: Paradoxes of globalization and children's citizenship in lebanon

Journal of Social History

Volumn 38, Issue 4 SPEC. ISS., 2005, Pages 1007-1026

  Joseph, Suad ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b Anthropology Department   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 22644442747     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh.2005.0063     Document Type: Review

References (42)

1. Natalie Hevener Kaugman, Irene Rizzini, Kathleen Wilson and Malcolm Bush, "The Impact of Global Economic, Political and Social Transformations on the Lives of Children. A Framework for Analysis," in Globalization and Children: Exploring Potentials for Enhancing Opportunities in the Lives of Children and Youth, Natalie Hevener Kaufman and Irene Rizzini, eds. (New York, 2002), p. 4.
2. Suad Joseph, ed., Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East (Syracuse, 2000).
3. G. Van Buren, The International Law on the Rights of the Child (London, 1995);
4. G. Van Buren, ed., International Documents on Children (London, 1993).
5. See Suad Joseph, "Children and Women's Rights: Gender, Relationality and Patriarchy in Rights Practices in Lebanon" in Gender and Citizenship in Lebanon, Najla Hamadeh, Jean Said Makdisi, Suad Joseph, eds. (Beirut, 1999), p. 325-342 (in Arabic);
6. Suad Joseph, "Citizenship Responsibility and Children: Dilemmas of Patriarchal Relational Responsibility in Lebanon," in Building Citizenship in Lebanon, Walid Moubarak, Antoine Messarra, Suad Joseph, eds. (Beirut, 1999), pp. 175-194 (in Arabic).
7. Suad Joseph, "Problematizing Gender and Relational Rights: Experiences from Lebanon," Social Politics 1:3 (Fall 1994): 271-285.
8. Bryan Turner, "Contemporary Problems in the Theory of Citizenship" in Citizenship and Social Theory, Bryan Turner, ed. (London, 1993), pp. 1-18.
9. For a distinguished early account which continually reads Lebanese history within regional and global developments see Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria Including Lebanon and Palestine (New York, 1951).
10. For a reinterpretation of Lebanon's history in the context of the Civil War, see Kamal Salibi, A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered (Berkeley, 1988).
11. Elie Adib Salem, Modernization Without Revolution: Lebanon's Experience (Bloomington, IN, 1973);
12. Leonard Binder, ed., Politics in Lebanon (New York, 1966).
13. Ussama Makdisi, The Culture of Sectarianism. Community, History and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon (Berkeley, 2000);
14. William R. Polk, The Opening of South Lebanon 1788-1840. A Study of the Impact of the West on the Middle East (Cambridge, MA, 1963);
15. Iliya F. Harik, Politics and Change in a Traditional Society, Lebanon 1711-1845 (Princeton, 1968).
16. Albert Hourani and Nadim Shehadi, eds., The Lebanese in the World: A Century of Emigration (London, 1992).
17. When I began my long-term research project on how Lebanese children learn their notions of rights, responsibilities and citizenship in 1994, I thought I would be carving a frontier. To my surprise, by 1994 (only 4 years after the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child took effect) there were dozens of Lebanese NGO's dedicated to working for children's rights in Lebanon.
18. There are about 500,000 Syrian workers in Lebanon, heavily involved in the construction industry, but also doing all sorts of manual labor. There are about 300,000 Palestinians, most of whom came either in 1948, in the immediate aftermath of the founding of Israel or in the late 1960s and early 1970s after Jordan clamped down on PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) activities. Domestic workers imported into Lebanon come from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, India, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and other countries. By some counts there are over 100,000 Sri Lankans alone in Lebanon, overwhelmingly women, the majority of whom are domestic workers. It is not uncommon for Lebanese newspapers and media editorials to decry the influence of these foreign workers on Lebanese children. However, the use of child care workers in the home is not new to Lebanon. Prior to the Civil War (1975-1990), a succession of domestic workers poured into Lebanese households, first from the rural areas of Lebanon to the urban areas, then from Syria, then from Egypt, then from Seychelles and so forth. What is striking now about the rise of the foreign domestic worker, is that this pattern pervades not only urban middle- and upper-class homes, but is found even in rural homes and lower middle-class homes.
19. See Ray Jureidini, "Migrant Workers and Xenophobia in the Middle East," Identity, Conflict and Cohesion (New York, 2003);
20. Ray Jureidini, "Migrant Women Domestic Workers in Lebanon," report prepared for the International Labor Organization (Beirut, 2001);
21. Ray Jureidini and N. Moukarbel, "Contract Slavery: the Case of Female Sri Lankan Domestic Labour in Lebanon," paper presented to the Workshop on Domestic Service and Mobility, The International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam, 5-7 February, 2001).
22. Louise-Marie Chidiac, Abdo Kahi, Antoine N. Messarra, eds., La Génération de la Relève Vols. I-IV (Beirut, 1992-1995);
23. Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace, Citizen for Tomorrow. Patterns for Civic Culture. (Beirut, 1995).
24. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1989 and went into effect September 2, 1990. Almost immediately, a flood of literature was produced examining how to apply these conventions to Lebanese and Arab children. For the formal documents on the Convention see UNICEF, "First Call for Children. World Declaration and Plan of Action From the World Summit for Children" (New York, 1990) or
25. G. Van Buren (1993), First Call for Children. World Declaration and Plan of Action from the World Summit for Children op. cit.
26. For literature from international, national and non-governmental organizations on the rights of the Lebanese child which are very much within global discourses on the rights of the child see: UNICEF, Lebanese National Core Team, "Lebanon Global Education Project" (Casablanca, 1994);
27. UNICEF, "UNICEF in Lebanon" (Beirut, 1994);
28. Arab Resource Collective, "Training of Trainers on Children's Rights" Workshop in Broumana, Lebanon, (Beirut, 1994);
29. Ghanem Bibi, "Towards Involving Parents in Early Childhood Education. Partnership with Parents" Workshop, Siblin, Lebanon (Beirut, 1993).
30. For manuals on "how to teach rights" to Arab children see Jacqueline Sfeir and Julia Gilkes, "Challenges and Initiatives in Early Childhood Education" (Beirut, 1992);
31. Heather Jarvis, Jackie Chapman, Chris Gibb, Don Harrison, "The Whole Child. A Project to Introduce the UN Convention on The Rights of the Child to 8-13 Year Olds" (Oxford, 1990);
32. Heather Jarvis, Jackie Chapman, Chris Gibb, Don Harrison, "Its Our Right. A Project to Introduce the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to 8-13 Year Olds" (Oxford, 1990).
33. For similar globalized rights discourse literature on the Arab child see Siona Jenkins, "The Arab Child: Challenges for a Brighter Future" (Amman, Jordan, 1993);
34. Sherene Seikaly and Ghanem Bibi, Children's Rights in the Arab World: Arab Discourse and Legislative Study (Beirut, 1995);
35. League of Arab States and UNICEF, The Arab Plan on Child Welfare, Protection and Development and Resolutions of the High Level Arab Meeting for Children (Amman, Jordan, 1992).
36. For parallel literature on other Arab countries, see especially Osman Osman and Hoda Rashad, eds., The Situation of Egyptian Children and Women. A Rights-Based Analysis. (Cairo, 2002);
37. In'am Mufti, "Rights of the Child in the Arab World," Journal of Arab Affairs, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring 1990): 41-60.
38. Suad Joseph, "The Politicization of Religious Sects in Borj Hammoud, Lebanon." Ph.D. Dissertation (1975, Columbia University) pp. 280-292.
39. I b i d.
40. Suad Joseph, "Brother-Sister Relationships: Connectivity, Love, and Power in the Reproduction of Patriarchy in Lebanon" in Suad Joseph, ed., Intimate Selving in Arab Families. Gender, Self and Identity (Syracuse, 1999), pp. 113-140.
41. For more about the Unises, see Suad Joseph, "Connectivity and Patriarchy among Urban Working-Class Arab Families in Lebanon," Ethos 21:4 (1993): 452-484.
42. See Joseph, "Brother-Sister Relationships," Ethos op.cit.