Generations and Globalization: Youth, Age, and Family in the New World Economy

241 Pages·2006·1.655 MB·English

by  Jennifer Cole, Deborah Durham

Anthropology | Sociology
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“This volume illuminates how families and the communities in which e
they are enmeshed negotiate everyday lives with the social, cultural, n Generations
economic, and political resources available to them. It provides an
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excellent example of how anthropology matters to our understand-
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ing of the contemporary world and its global restructuring.” a and
—Karen Tranberg Hansen, Northwestern University
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Contributors o Globalization
Jennifer Cole Sarah Lamb Andrea Muehlebach n
Deborah Durham Julie Livingston Martha Areli Ramírez Sánchez
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Jessica Greenberg Roger Magazine T. E. Woronov

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Globalization is not only a large-scale phenomenon: it is also inextricably bound
up with intimate aspects of personhood, care, and the daily decisions through
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which we make our lives. Looking at sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Mexico,
the United States, Europe, India, and China, Generations and Globalization in-
G Youth, Age, and
vestigates the impact of globalization in the context of families, age groups, and
intergenerational relations. The contributors offer an innovative approach that
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focuses on the changing dynamics between generations, rather than treating o Family in the
changes in isolated categories of childhood, youth, or old age. They argue that
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new economies and global fl ows do not just transform contemporary family life, New World
but are in important ways shaped and constituted by it. a
Economy
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JENNIFER COLE is Associate Professor of Comparative Human Development
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at the University of Chicago.
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DEBORAH DURHAM is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Sweet Briar
College. t
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o
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Tracking Globalization—Robert J. Foster, editor
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Cover photographs by Martha Areli Ramírez Sánchez and Jennifer Cole. o Edited by
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a Jennifer Cole
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ISBN-13: 978-0-253-21870-4 D and
ISBN-10: 0-253-21870-5 u
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h
INDIANA a Deborah Durham
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University Press
http://iupress.indiana.edu
Bloomington & Indianapolis 1-800-842-6796 INDIANA
Generations and Globalization
tracking globalization
robert j. foster, editor
Editorial advisory board:
Mohammed Bamyeh
Lisa Cartwright
Randall Halle
Generations and
Globalization
Youth, Age, and Family in the
New World Economy
Edited by Jennifer Cole & Deborah Durham
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington & Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796
Fax orders 812-855-7931
Orders by e-mail [email protected]
∫ 2007 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association
of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions
constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum require-
ments of American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI
Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Generations and globalization : youth, age, and family in the new world economy /
edited by Jennifer Cole and Deborah Durham.
p. cm. — (Tracking globalization)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-253-34803-X (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 0-253-21870-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Intergenera-
tional relations. 2. Age groups. 3. Globalization—Social aspects. I. Cole, Jennifer, date
II. Durham, Deborah Lynn, date III. Series.
hm726.g45 2007
305.209%0511—dc22
2006009629
1 2 3 4 5 12 11 10 09 08 07
Contents
acknowledgments / vii
Introduction: Age, Regeneration, and the Intimate Politics of Globalization
Jennifer Cole and Deborah Durham / 1
1. Chinese Children, American Education:
Globalizing Child Rearing in Contemporary China
T. E. Woronov / 29
2. Continuity and Change in San Pedro Tlalcuapan, Mexico:
Childhood, Social Reproduction, and Transnational Migration
Roger Magazine and Martha Areli Ramírez Sánchez / 52
3. Fresh Contact in Tamatave, Madagascar:
Sex, Money, and Intergenerational Transformation
Jennifer Cole / 74
4. Empowering Youth: Making Youth Citizens in Botswana
Deborah Durham / 102
5. Aging across Worlds: Modern Seniors in an Indian Diaspora
Sarah Lamb / 132
6. Maintaining Local Dependencies: Elderly Women and
Global Rehabilitation Agendas in Southeastern Botswana
Julie Livingston / 164
7. The Old World and Its New Economy:
Notes on the ‘‘Third Age’’ in Western Europe Today
Jessica Greenberg and Andrea Muehlebach / 190
list of contributors / 215
index / 217

acknowledgments
The final shape of this book is due to the critical input and support of many
friends and colleagues. We would like to thank Jean Comaroff for her com-
ments on the panel entitled ‘‘Global Ages: Childhood, Youth, and Old Age in
a Time of Global Flows’’ that we put together for the annual meeting of the
American Anthropological Association in 2001. Smita Lahiri, Anne-Marie
Leshkowich, Karen Strassler, Ajantha Subramanian, and Christine Walley,
members of the Cambridge Writing Circle in 2003–2004, gave important
feedback on an early draft of the introduction. T. E. Woronov and Julie Liv-
ingston each gave helpful comments on the introduction as well. The anony-
mous reviewers for Indiana University Press, our series editor Robert Foster,
and our editor Rebecca Tolen all provided insightful comments on all of the
essays individually and as a whole. Above all we want to thank the contributors
to the volume for their work, their patience, and their faith that this project
would, one day, come to fruition.

Generations and Globalization