How a Comparative Study of Childhood Became a Story of Global Crisis

Abstract

Chapter one provides a chronological account of the evolution of the project. It began in 2008 as a study comparing Italy’s social welfare approach and with the United States’ free market approach, to explore how social polices affect the ecology of childhood in rich nations. It rapidly became the story of an environmental crisis on a global scale. When the great recession struck both countries, the vulnerability of both systems was revealed. Even as politicians seeking to stabilize markets slashed at existing safety nets, neuroscientific research was documenting the lifelong effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) on brain development, adult health and well-being. The strains of recession fuelled a populist backlash and nationalistic political leaders in both countries gained control by inflaming anti-immigrant and white nationalist sentiments. The discontents of globalization, including market economics, technological revolution, rising inequality, mass migration, and climate change, were clearly calling into question dominant assumptions about prosperity through limitless growth. The book evolved to document these changes over a ten-year period. Chapter one closes by explaining the rationale for starting at the micro level; examining the small worlds of children provides a foundation for understanding how global forces are affecting the intimate ecologies of childhood.