Child labor and childhood: from the industrial revolution to the present day
Dr. Talia Pfefferman

Child labor has been inseparable from the household economy in England at the turn of the 19th century. Children worked in all economic sectors, contributing their share to the family's subsistence. Technological innovations that propelled the industrial revolution changed not only work patterns, but also social perception concerning the meaning of 'work', 'childhood', and 'rights', leading to profound transformations in attitudes towards very definition of childhood, children's place in the family, and society's role in enabling and protecting such childhood in the UK, and in the entire Western world.
The course deals with the changes that have occurred since the early 19th century in the concepts of 'work' and 'Childhood', in the relevant social and legal reforms that occurred during this period and in the changes in the nature of child labor by focusing on the British case study.