This article explores young people's transitions to adulthood in a rural community in Mexico. The focus is on participants' migration experiences and the premise is that migration can be understood as an alternative way of inclusion found by the rural youth which is strongly determined by individuals' agency. The article explores the role played…

This paper gives prominence to rural children's accounts of their journey to school. Twelve children (male = 6; female = 6) from three different rural villages in Lesotho participated in the study. Individual and focus group interviews were used to generate data, and these were preceded by three participatory research techniques: family drawings,…

This policy is the first manifestation of the state's effort to organize youth to volunteer in rural China where the help is most needed. It emphasizes key tasks that can be accomplished by the volunteers in terms of education and training for rural China, especially through science and education. The Promotion Action reflects the mission of the…

This paper examines whether children sent to work in rural Bangladesh are caught in a "poverty trap," with the extra income from child labor coming at the expense of the children's longer-term prospects of escaping poverty through education. The poverty trap argument depends on children's work being substitutable for schooling. Casual…

Results of a household survey from rural Ethiopia indicate that rural children commonly participated in household and agricultural work from a very early age, and more than half of working children had never attended school. In the context of subsistence economies such as these, initial policy interventions should aim to make the combination of…

Although a growing theoretical literature points to credit constraints as an important source of inefficiently high child labor, little work has been done to assess its empirical relevance. This paper examines the direct effect of a transitory income shock on household child labor choices, as well as the extent to which access to credit helps…

This paper uses regression and matching techniques to evaluate Indonesia's Social Safety Net Scholarships Program. The program aimed to prevent large numbers of children from dropping out of school as a result of the Asian economic crisis of 1998. It was expected that families would find it difficult to keep their children in school and that…

Data from Ecuador's Living Standard and Measurement Surveys were used to analyze the characteristics and determinants of child labor and schooling. Of particular interest was the influence of adult wages on child labor. Survey data on children aged 10-17 included sex, age, rural or urban residence, monthly wages, whether or not attending school,…

Historical causes of rural poverty and general recommendations for work among rural youth in India, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand are presented in this summary of national reports given before the Rural Youth Study Group in 1976. In addition to study papers on each country, the volume contains an introduction on rural youth and…

In the face of extreme poverty and inequality in South Africa, community mobilization interventions represent an important way in which people can be empowered to improve their life. Successfully conducting community mobilization interventions in rural South African communities requires anticipating and addressing a number of potential barriers in…

This book includes studies of globalization-related social changes in rural areas of the United States and other countries and implications of these studies for sociological theory. Although no chapter focuses exclusively on education, education-related themes include rural school dropouts and intergenerational poverty, the migration of rural…

For many years, farmworkers in Zimbabwe have been a marginalized and neglected community. This book describes the lives of hired farmworkers' children in their own words. Over 850 children aged 10-17 were interviewed or wrote essays in English or Shona. Nearly all the children were in elementary school in grades 4-7. Many farm children undergo…

Tilonia, a typical rural village of the State of Rajasthan (India), is home to the Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC). Since 1972, SWRC has brought educational services, safe drinking water, health care, and employment to villages in the area. It has started 150 night schools in 89 villages, where children who work during the day develop…

In Bolivia, a third of rural children are stunted, and rural infants are twice as likely to die before age 2 than urban infants. National survey data indicate child survival and development are related to maternal education and literacy, community sanitation practices, access to health care, and socioeconomic status. Parental knowledge about…

In the Third World, women's literacy and access to primary education lags behind that of men, and the situation is more accentuated for rural than for urban women. In general, rural women have lower literacy than rural men and than urban women. Because a considerable percentage of girls enrolled in primary school are over 14 years old, marriage,…