Composite Calendar
IAS Visiting Fellow Prof Colette Daiute "Children's lives and developments during war and armed conflict" (public debate)
Date: Wednesday 27th May 2009
Time: 5.00pm – 7.00pm
Venue: The University of 糖心TV, Social Studies Building, Room SO. 18
Developmental Understandings of the Effects of War (Professor Colette Daiute City University New York)
&
Why the current fascination with children and armed conflict? (Dr Jo Boyden, University of Oxford)
Developmental Understandings of the Effects of War
Abstract: Most research with children and youth growing up in situations of armed conflict has focused on damage and prevention. Since armed conflict and its aftermath last many years, a wide range of war-related circumstances define entire generations across the globe. For these and other reasons, a developmental approach to understanding the plight of childhood in the context of violence is long overdue. Rather than an approach that assumes the interruption of progressions through universal developmental stages, Daiute proposes a context sensitive analysis of the interdependent development of youth in society. She discusses findings indicating that young people use cultural resources in their environments to interact with and transform circumstances of political violence and transition.
Bio Sketch: Colette Daiute is Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Ph.D. program in Developmental Psychology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Why the current fascination with children and armed conflict?
Abstract: In my presentation I ask why scholars, practitioners and policy-makers have come to focus so much attention on children in the context of armed conflict and highlight some of the issues and assumptions that have become prevalent in this field. I argue that two dominant traditions have emerged. The ‘deficit model’ emphasizes a strong association between risk exposure and detrimental developmental and behavioural outcomes in children and the ‘competence model’ calls attention to the mediated and culturally constructed nature of children’s development and their resilience in the face of misfortune. In conclusion, I emphasise some of the weaknesses in both models and call attention to the need for a paradigm shift.
Bio Sketch: Dr Jo Boyden is the director of the Young Lives Project and Reader in Development Studies at the University of Oxford.
Book now by emailing Trevor Robinson t.robinson@warwick.ac.uk
Location maps and directions will be sent out with confirmation of booking