Abstract
This chapter examines neo-abolitionist representations of children’s participation in precarious labour as ‘child slavery’ using the accounts of children seeking income earning opportunities in the Ghanaian artisanal gold mining sector. The chapter argues that the labelling of this phenomenon as ‘modern slavery’ or ‘child slavery’ by Free the Slaves and other neo-abolitionist groups is a misnomer. Juxtaposing the children’s accounts of their work and lived experiences with neo-abolitionist rhetoric on same, the chapter demonstrates that the ‘child slavery’ label and other commonly held mainstream assumptions on worst forms of child labour (WFCL) are driven by moral, political and discursive logics which contrast with those held by children and communities directly affected by the WFCL phenomenon. Consequently, abolitionist and mainstream responses to the problem fail to address the causal factors identified by affected children and communities. The chapter concludes that lasting solutions to this child rights issue requires respect for the views of affected children and communities and action against the structural factors which produce the conditions necessitating children’s entry into jobs such as artisanal mining.
Highlights
Convenors: Dr Laura Brace, University of Leicester, Dr Mark Johnson, University of Hull, Professor Julia O’Connell Davidson & Professor Zoe Trodd, University of Nottingham
Main purpose/theme of session : Human trafficking has commanded a great deal of public and policy attention over the past two decades, and is frequently described as a “modern slave trade”. This session examines similarities and differences between the phenomena grouped under the heading of “trafficking” and slave trades historically, and between historical and contemporary movements to abolish such trade
It considers the significance of race ideas for understandings of ancient, transatlantic and “modern” slave trades; asks how contemporary abolitionism represents, explains, or conceals the global power relations that underpin the phenomena it condemns; explores what scholarship of the transatlantic slave trade might have to teach those concerned with restrictions on the freedom of migrants in the contemporary world; and addresses the intersections of gendered, racialized, and national identities in the production of the systems of political and economic domination that produce differential restraints on freedom
Summary
Professor Julia O’Connell Davidson, University of Nottingham and Dr Laura Brace, University of Leicester. Session 1: Defining Slavery: Old and New Chair: Dr Laura Brace, University of Leicester. Main purpose/theme of session : This session will focus on the historical and political complexities and ambiguities of defining slavery and its relationship to inequality, exploitation and subordination. It will set up and frame the themes of the conference by exploring what is constructed as the opposite of slavery, the development of the binary between slavery and freedom, and the content of that freedom, in relation to labour and belonging. Speakers from Philosophy and English will consider the connections between old and new slaveries, and reflect on the shifts and continuities in the ways in which slavery is socially imagined and politically contested
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