Prelims

Half Title Page

Being a Child in a Global World

Title Page

Being a Child in a Global World: Childhood in an Environment of Violence, Terror, Migration and Rapid Change

Edited By

Betül Karagöz Yerdelen

Giresun University, Turkey

Kamuran Elbeyoğlu

Girne American University, Turkey

Osman Sirkeci

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, Turkey

Yasemin Mamur Işıkçı

Giresun University, Turkey

Simon Grima

University of Malta, Malta

And

Rebecca E. Dalli Gonzi

University of Malta, Malta

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

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First edition 2022

Editorial matter and selection © 2022 Betül Karagöz Yerdelen, Kamuran Elbeyoğlu, Osman Sirkeci, Yasemin Mamur Işıkçı, Simon Grima and Rebecca E. Dalli Gonzi.

Individual chapters © 2022 The authors.

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ISBN: 978-1-80117-241-7 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-240-0 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-242-4 (Epub)

About the Contributors

Mustafa Serkan Abdusselam is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology and the Director of Augmented Reality Research and Application Center. He earned his master's degree in 2006 from the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology at Black Sea Technical University. He has a PhD from the Department of Mathematics and Science Education at Black Sea Technical University in Turkey. He has participated in various national and international projects. His research interests include augmented reality, technology integration and usage, wearable technology, problem-based learning and research methods.

Esmeray Alacadağli started at the Political Science and Public Administration Department of Bayburt University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in 2015. She has a master's degree in the field of Public Administration from the Public Administration Institute for Turkey and the Middle East. She received a PhD in the field of Environment and Urbanisation from Ankara University, Turkey, in 2004. Her main research fields are environment, health, public administration, urbanisation, total quality management, migration, poverty, child and woman right, industrialisation and reorganisation. She has many academic studies in these fields as book, book chapters and articles. She also has academic publications on children councils, children's rights, child poverty and administrators' awareness of children's rights. She took part as coordinator, executive and researcher in many national and international projects (e.g. EU, WB). She is still working at Bayburt University Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences an Associate Professor.

Müzeyyen Altunbay was born in 1986 in Trabzon where she completed her primary, secondary and high school education. She graduated from Ataturk University in 2009. She completed her master's degree at Atatürk University in 2011. In 2015, she completed her doctorate programme in Turkish Education at Gazi University Educational Sciences Institute. She became an Associate Professor in 2019. Her main fields of study are Turkish education, children's literature and teaching Turkish as a foreign language. There are many works published in national and international journals by the author. She is still working at Giresun University Faculty of Education as an Associate Professor.

Betül Ateş graduated from Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Administration. In 2020, she completed her master's degree at Giresun University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science and Public Administration. She is still working on childhood policies.

Dr Balamurugan Balusamy has served in the position of Associate Professor in his stint of 14 years of experience with VIT University, Vellore. He is a passionate teacher and promoter of inclusive teaching pedagogy in the classroom. He has around 30 books on various technologies to his credit and visited more than 15 countries for his technical discourse. He has participated in several conferences and publications.

Aliye Bulut was born in Elazığ in 1981. She completed her master's degree (2006) and PhD in Public Health at Fırat University Faculty of Medicine (2014). The author, who has many research studies in the national and international indexes, also participated in scientific activities in the fields. The author's research fields include women's and child health, elderly health and environmental health-hygiene research. She has taught undergraduate courses in many institutions. She is currently working as a faculty member at Gaziantep Islamic Science and Technology University Faculty of Medicine. She is married with two children.

Sinan Bulut is the Head of Health Management Brunch in Faculty of Health Sciences Department at Karatekin University, Çankırı, Turkey. He completed his undergraduate education, master's and doctorate degree in Health Management area in Hacettepe University. He has many academic publications and works to his credit.

Nurullah Çaliş is a member of Faculty of Health Sciences Department of Social Work in Giresun University in Turkey. He received his BA in Social Work from Hacettepe University (Ankara). He worked for the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a social worker between 2011 and 2012. Then he worked for Hacettepe University as a research assistant in the Social Work Department for five years. He received his PhD (integrated) in Social Work from Hacettepe University in 2019. Between the years 2017 and 2019, he worked for Recep Tayyip Erdogan University (Rize) Social Work department. In 2020, he was appointed to his current academic position. His academic interests are adolescence, school social work, social work practices child welfare social policies.

Dr Joan Camilleri is currently Head of Counselling Services within the University of Malta. She is interested in psychotherapy applied to management and creating evidence-based interventions to facilitate students and academics achieve their full potential. This includes psycho-education with regard to leadership, mentoring and handling challenging and suicidal students. Dr Camilleri is a Founding Member and Chairperson of the Malta Association of EMDR, a psychotherapeutic approach which focuses on trauma-based interventions, promoting trauma awareness over social and mass media. She has over 20 years' experience in mental health as a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, and recently as a Managing Psychologist with Coordinating Duties. This experience informed her how crucial trauma is in the precipitation and maintenance of mental ill health at various levels.

Tolga Cikrikci works at Giresun University, Department of International Relations. He teaches International Law, International Organisations, International Human Rights Law, Migration and Refugees. He completed his BA in International Relations at Karadeniz Technical University in 2006 and his MA in International Relations at the same university in 2010. In 2019, he obtained his PhD at Gazi University with his dissertation titled ‘Human Security and Europe: Migrant Crisis After Arab Spring’. Cikrikci has participated in a few staff exchange programmes in Romania and Slovakia. He has publications on Turkish Foreign Policy, United Nations, Asylum and Immigration Policies, Human Rights and International Organisations.

Dr. Rebecca Emily Dalli Gonzi, PhD (Glasg), MSc (Edin), B.E. & A., (Melit) (Hons), A.& C.E., A.L.C.M. (Lond), is an architect, project co-ordinator and lecturer. She is a registered and certified civil engineer by the Chamber of Architects Malta, and a registered chartered member of the Royal Institute for British Architects London. She has experience working in both the commercial and governmental sectors in Malta and Scotland. She is a University of Malta resident academic who teaches Project Management, Geopolitical and Environmental Risk and Business Continuity Management. She developed the DALI model, an organisational risk assessment tool that may be utilised when companies require crisis recovery action. Her book, Change and Continuity Management in the Public Sector: The DALI Model for Effective Decision Making, proposes a paradigm for managing organisational risk to assist businesses and organisations in achieving their goals with few setbacks and low resources. Her study stresses the premise that successful management necessitates the use of appropriate decision-making procedures. Organisational management, strategic project management and construction management are among her research interests. She is a member of PRIMO European Risk Board, Chair of the Student well-being committee at the University of Malta and council member of the Malta Association of Risk Management MARM, Malta.

Abdullah Dirikoç He graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Political Sciences Department of Public Administration in 2010. He continues his studies at Mersin University Institute of Social Sciences Public Administration doctorate programme, which he started in 2016. Since 2013, he has been working as a research assistant at Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Administration. He works in the fields of children's rights, child labour and refugee children.

Kamuran Elbeyoğlu was born in 1960 in Ankara. She graduated from the Department of Philosophy and Psychology in School of Letters at Ankara University in 1981. In 1985, she completed her master's degree in the Department of Psychological Services in Education in Educational Faculty at Ankara University. In 1986, she was awarded a doctoral scholarship from the Ministry of National Education and completed her PhD in 1994 in Philosophy in the University of Minnesota. She worked in the Department of Philosophy in Mersin University between the years 1996 and 2009. She worked in Çağ University between the years 2009 and 2013 and then was appointed to Toros University Psychology Department as a professor in July 2013. Since 2019 December she has been working as a street economy project expert in İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Social Projects Department. She is a member of the Sustainable Urban Development Network Izmir Board. In 2010, she published The Philosophy of Mind for the distance education programme in the Department of Philosophy in Anadolu University and Sören Kierkegaard, written for the Idea Architects series in Say Publishers. She is a field editor for Urban Academy Journal, and editor for various national and international journals. She is a co-author of Global Street Economy and Micro Entrepreneurship published in 2020 May by Emerald Public House with Dr Osman Sirkeci. Elbeyoğlu and Sirkeci's new book, A New Social Street Economy – An Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic, is in the publishing phase as the 107th book of the same series in June 2021. She is the founder and a member of the Global Street Economics Platform (GLOSEP) nationally and Self Workers Global (SWG) internationally. She has been pursuing research projects on otherization and social inclusion of disadvantaged groups and social economy both in national and international fields. Her research interests are philosophy of mind, women rights, social philosophy, existentialism and philosophical therapy.

Erdem Eren was born in İstanbul in 1991. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Department of Political Science and International Relations of Yıldız Technical University and master's degree from the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. He continues his education in the Political Science and International Relations Doctoral Programme at Istanbul Yeni Yüzyıl University. He studied in his theses ‘Greek Policies Preventing the Integration of Western Thrace Turks’ and ‘Turkish Public Diplomacy in the Balkans and Areas of Activity’. He has articles published in refereed journals such as ‘New Structure of Turkish Public Diplomacy in the Light of Presidental Decree’, ‘Historical Background of Greek Nationalism and the Problem of Western Thrace as an Example of Political Reflection’, ‘TRT as Media Diplomacy Actor and Its Sample Activities in The Balkans’, ‘The Role of the Civil Society in Building Foreign Policy: The Example of Turkish Public Diplomacy’ and ‘Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Future Perspective in Turkish Foreign Policy’. The book section ‘Problems of the Muslim and Turkish Minority in the Balkans’ was also published. He researches on topics such as Turkey's foreign policy in the Balkans and Eurasia, public diplomacy, minority issues in the Balkans, political economy of international relations and geostrategy. He works as a Research Assistant in İstanbul Rumeli University Rumeli Studies Center.

Kubilayhan Erman is a graduate of a law-based programme of the Army Military Academy. He gained a master's degree in International Relations from Ufuk University and a PhD in General Turkish History from Ankara University in 2013. He served as an officer at different posts of Turkish Gendarmerie Command between 1991 and 2010, both in the field and in the headquarters. During the course of his professional life, he worked for Temporary International Presence in the City of Hebron (Israel) and Multinational Advisory Police Element (Albania) as observer, duty officer, trainer and advisor. He has certificates from the Training Manager Course, the Law of Armed Conflict Course, Combatting Terrorism and Armed Conflict Course, and Unit Commander Course for Peace Operations. He gained experience in the field at leadership posts and at decision-making level both at home and abroad, in local administrative duties, military-police procedures-training, human rights observation and reporting. After he retired as a lieutenant colonel, he worked as a lecturer for two years at Giresun University International Relations department. Concerning academic studies, he focuses on conflict zones and peripheric areas such as Latin America and Afghanistan. He has three books published and a series of academic articles on the above-mentioned areas of study. He has national certificates of proficiency in English and Spanish languages while qualified for being able to carry out research studies in the Russian language.

Bahriye Eseler was born in 1990. She received her Bachelor of Arts degrees from Public Administration and Business Administration departments from Trakya University in Turkey in 2013. She completed her Master of Arts in the Trakya University Department of Public Administration in 2016. She is still continuing her PhD in Political Science and Public Administration Department of Marmara University. She is now a Lecturer at the Social Security Programme of Health Services Vocational Training School at Üsküdar University (SHMYO/Sosyal Güvenlik Programı).

Ahmet Fidan graduated from İstanbul University Faculty of Political Sciences in 1993. He obtained his master's degree in I. U. Human Resources Management department in 1996. He completed his PhD in M. U. Social Sciences Institute Local Administrations and Decentralization department. He started his government officer life in Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. He worked in IETT General Management between 1997 and 1999. He worked as an academician in Balikesir University from 2002 to 2011. He was also on duty as Chairman Advisor in Balikesir Municipality with dual assignment. He transferred to Avrasya University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Public Management department as deputy dean 2011. He transferred to Ordu University Unye FEAS in 2012. He is managing AEF Culture and Research Center which he established. His chief editorship include: Urban Academy (www.kentakademisi.com), Turkey Interactive Columnist Newspaper www.yazarportal.com, and Journal of Environmental and Natural Studies (www.jenas.org). His Presidentships include: Blacksea Poets and Author Association, Blacksea Nature and Environment Association. He received the second prize sponsored by the Turkish National Productivity Center MPM in 2000.

Kurtuluş Yilmaz Genç is the Associate Professor of Management at Giresun University, Turkey. He obtained his bachelor's degree from Ankara University and master's, and PhD degrees from Karadeniz Technical University of Turkey. He worked as a research assistant at Karadeniz Technical University, between the years 2002 and 2009. He worked at Exeter University, United Kingdom, as a visiting researcher for a year. His research areas include strategic management, human resource management, organisational behaviour, entrepreneurship and innovation. He has many articles, conference papers, book chapters, books and book editorships on the general topics

Prof. Simon Grima is the the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy, Associate Professor and the Head of the Department of Insurance and Risk Management which he set up in 2015 and started and coordinates the MA and MSc Insurance and Risk Management degrees together with the B.Com in Insurance at the University of Malta. Simon is also a Professor at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Business, Management and Economics and a Visiting Professor at UNICATT Milan. He served as the President of the Malta Association of Risk Management (MARM) and President of the Malta Association of Compliance Officers (MACO) between 2013 and 2015, and between 2016 and 2018, respectively. Moreover, he is the chairman of the Scientific Education Committee of the Public Risk Management Organization (PRIMO) and the Federation of European Risk Managers (FERMA). His research focus is on Governance, Regulations and Internal Controls, and has over 30 years of experience varied between Financial Services, academia and public entities. He has acted as co-chair and is a member of the scientific programme committee on some international conferences and is a chief editor, editor and review editor of some journals and book series. He has been awarded outstanding reviewer for the Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance in the 2017 Emerald Literati Awards. Moreover, Simon acts as an Independent Director for Financial Services Firms, sits on Risk, Compliance, Procurement, Investment and Audit Committees and carries out duties as a Compliance Officer, Internal Auditor and Risk Manager.

Ebru Turan Güntepe is currently a Research Assistant at the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies at Giresun University. She received her bachelor's degree in 2010 from the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology at Bahçeşehir University and continued her academic career at Black Sea Technical University. She earned her master's degree in 2015 and a PhD in 2020 from the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology at Black Sea Technical University. Her research interests include hologram technology, technology integration, designing technology-supported learning environments, game-based learning and e-learning.

Yasemin Mamur Işikçi graduated from Trakya University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Administration. She received her master's degree from Abant İzzet Baysal University Social Sciences Institute Public Administration and her doctorate degree from İnönü University Social Sciences Institute, Political Science and Public Administration. She mainly continues her studies in the field of childhood policies.

Abbas Karaağaçli, who graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Communications, and the Department of Journalism in 1984, completed his graduate and doctored programmes at the Department of International Relations in the same university. Dr Karaağaçli, who began his academic life in the Central Asia, worked as Associate Professor at Jalal-Abad University in Kyrgyzstan, Ahmet Yesevi University in Kazakhstan, International Turk Kazakh University and as Secretary General for Turkey – Manas University in Kyrgyzstan in addition to working as the head of the department of International Relations for the same university. He also took over as the Director of Eurasia Research Center of Kazakhistan Shymkent Miras International University. Dr Karaağaçli, who began working as an Associate Professor at Giresun University, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences in 2010, carried out the offices of Vice Presidency (2016–2019), Deputy Dean of The Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences and the Head of the department of the international relations. Dr Karaağaçli, who is highly proficient in the Central Asian languages, has a number of books and articles on International Relations published in Turkish, Kyrgyz, Persian and Kazakh. Dr Abbas Karaağaçli, who has attended to the foreign policy themed shows of the international broadcasting organisations such as BBC, the Voice of America and Persia Today and especially TRT Ankara, and who still holds of the office of the Director at Giresun University Black Sea Strategic Research and Application Center (KARASAM), is married with a single daughter.

Işıl Kellevezir is a member of the Business Administration Faculty, Administration of Human Resources Department in İzmir Demokrasi University in İzmir. Kellevezir graduated from Ege University Faculty of Science, Department of Statistics, and earned her MA from Dokuz Eylul University, Total Quality Management Department. She received her PhD in the Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations at Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey. Her academic interest areas are in social policy, labour, education, manpower planning, statistics, quality and process management.

Sina Kısacık is an Assistant Professor and Doctor at the International Relations Department of Cyprus Science University, Kyrenia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. He was a lecturer at the Social Sciences Institute of Özyeğin in University, İstanbul. He also worked as an Assistant Professor at the Political Sciences and International Relations Department of İstanbul Gelişim University. Dr Sina Kısacık has co-authored four books and has authored/co-authored several book chapters and papers in various academic national and international journals in English and in Turkish. His research interests include: Energy Geopolitics and Security, Turkish Foreign Policy, Russian Foreign Policy, Caucasia, Central Asia, Eurasia and European Union. Sina Kısacık holds a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from Yeditepe University, İstanbul, Turkey, an MA in European Union Studies from Galatasaray University and a Bachelor of Arts on International Relations from Bilgi University, İstanbul.

H. Hilal Şahin is an Associate Professor and Doctor, a Member of the Faculty of Science and Literature at Giresun University, Turkey, and Head of Department of Eurasian Studies. Earlier, she worked at a TV Channel in Turkey as a speaker, and nearly 6 years later she worked at the Department, Head of Communication at Presidency of Turkey for nearly 12 years. She completed her academic career at Ankara University, Faculty of Language, History and Geography. Since 2015 she has been an Academic Fellow at Giresun University, History Department of General History. She has participated in various national and international projects. She teaches Indian History especially related to medieval India, about, the State of Baburids (Mughals), the Indian Culture, India–Turkey Relations, the History of Middle Asia and the History of Child and Childhood. Since 2002 she has been writing about several issues related to Indian History, the Akbar Shah Period, the Delhi Sultanate, the Razia Begum, the Gulbadan Begum, the Indira Gandhi, the Mahatma Gandhi, the Ottoman–the India Relations, the Turkish National Struggle and the Indian Muslims, the Kut-al-Amara War and the Indian Soldiers, the Çanakkale War and the Indian Soldiers, the Sultans of Baburid, the Impacts of Socio-cultural and Religious Reforms of Akbar Shah on the Social Life of India, History of child and childhood, Child–Childhood Concepts and History of Childhood, the Kid's Subject in Dede Korkut Histories etc. She delivered several lectures abroad (India and Russia) and many lectures in Turkey on India–Turkey Relations, the Turkish National Struggle and Indian Muslims, the ethnicity of the Baburid Empire and Baburnama etc. She is now studying the Women and Child–Childhood concept during Medieval India on the Baburid Period. She knows Hindi, Sanskrit and English. She has a book on Akbar Period in India, named Turkish Renaissance in India: Akbar Shah and Din-e Ilahi. And authored/co-authored a book, named Indian and Turkish History and Culture Studies.

Osman Sirkeci was born on 21 January 1959 in Bulgurca, İzmir, Turkey. Dr Osman Sirkeci completed his master's degree in Germany in 2005 and in 2011 received his PhD in Finance from DokuzEylül University. He worked as an accountant and manager in companies such as Cumaovası Chamber of Craftsmen, Izmir Chamber of Agriculture and Istanbul Airlines. He was the Head of Textilbank Germany, CB-Bank Cologne and Düisburg Branch. He served as a vice president of the European Federation of Turkish Businessmen (TIDAF). He started his academic career at Hakkâri University in 2011 and continued his academic career as an Associate Dean at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in the Eurasian University and as a Faculty Administrative Coordinator at Giresun University until 2019. Since October 2019 he has been working in İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, where he is the founder and an expert of the Street Economy department. He is a member of the Sustainable Urban Development Network Izmir Board. He is a field editor for Urban Academy Journal and editor for various national and international journals. He is a co-author of Global Street Economy and Micro Entrepreneurship published in 2020 May by Emerald Public House with Prof Dr Kamuran Elbeyoğlu. Elbeyoğlu and Sirkeci's new book, A New Social Street Economy – An Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, is in the publishing phase as the 107th book of the same series in June 2021. Since 2013, he has been developing and spreading his new approach of Global Street Economy – Micro Enterprises and Street Entrepreneurship with national and international conferences and projects. He is the founder and a member of the Global Street Economics Platform (GLOSEP) nationally and Self Workers Global (SWG) internationally. He has been a chief adviser of Recycling Workers Association (RWA) in Turkey. He has given conferences and published on the topic of street economy and street entrepreneurship at both national and international level.

Huriye Toker, as a Norwegian/Turkish citizen, is a Lecturer at Yaşar University. She is also Director of Yaşar University Women and Family Studies Research and Application Center. Dr Toker received her PhD in European Studies from Dokuz Eylül University and an MA in Journalism from Ege University. She is holding her second master's degree (CPhil) from the Media Department of Oslo University, Norway. Prof Toker also completed a one-year MSc programme in Political Science at Stuttgart University, Germany. Dr Toker has coordinated and engaged in several EU-funded projects and held the Jean Monnet Module titled ‘EU Talk: Integrating Turkish Media to European Public Sphere’ (2017–2020). Her research and publications focus on disadvantaged groups, social responsibility, Turkey-EU relations, elections and gender studies.

Azize Serap Tunçer is the Head of Social Work Brunch in Faculty of Health Sciences Department at Karatekin University, Çankırı, Turkey. Tuncer was born in Diyarbakır in 1963 and graduated from Gazi University, Department of Public Administration, in 1985. She also received his MSc degree from the same university in 1997. Then she received her PhD from Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences Department of Urbanization and Environmental Sciences in 2005. She worked in Çankaya Municipality as an inspector (1985–2001); Member of Municipal Committee (2001–2005) and Head of Inspection Board (2001-2009) in Ankara. She published over 100 national articles and papers about topics of urbanisation, local management and environmental policies. Then she began her academic career in Ahi Evran University as an Assistant Professor in 2009 and was appointed as the Head of Political Sciences and Public Administration Department in 2011–2018. Since 2016 she worked as a Head of Urbanization and Environmental Problems Brunch. In 2013 she was appointed as an Associate Professor Drin this same university. Then she appointed as a Professor and Head of Social Work Brunch in Faculty of Health Sciences Department at Karatekin University in Çankırı and currently continues his academic works in there. She published 85 national and international papers and 70 national and international conferences. She has one literature book and her 15 works are published as book chapters in national and international books.

Pallavi Tyagi is currently working as an Associate Professor in the College of Commerce and Finance, Amity University, India. With industry and teaching experience of more than 11 years, she has published many primary data based quality research papers and case studies. She made presentations at various international conferences. She has also worked on many funded research projects for institutions like NIAM, Jaipur (a NITI Ayog funded Project) and THSTI, Faridabad.

Deepika Upadhyay, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Commerce, Finance and Accountancy at Christ University, Bangalore. Her passion for primary data research made her a distinct faculty in the area of finance and commerce. Her research interests lie in Sustainability, Social Entrepreneurship, Financial Inclusion and Financial literacy.

Özge Üstün completed his bachelor's degree in Law at Marmara University Faculty of Law (2013). She currently holds a master's degree in Children's Rights at Giresun University Institute of Social Sciences. Üstün, who has research studies in national index, also participated in scientific activities in this field. In 2014, she completed her internship and began working as a lawyer and has been a follower of social cases in this field.

Betül Karagöz Yerdelen is an academic fellow at Giresun University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, the Department of Technology Education. She completed a bachelor's degree in Education of Technology at Gazi University and continued her professional career. She finished a course on Educational Media in Japan. After working in the field of educational media and broadcasting for a while, she became interested in an academic career. She continued her academic career at Ankara University. She holds an MA and a PhD in Education of Art Sciences and an MA and a PhD in Political Sciences. She was post-doctoral research fellow in Political Sciences at the University of Kansas, USA. Her main fields of research are Political Institutionalisation and State Transformation; Imperialism and Hegemony; Cultural–Political Violence; Trans-nationalism; Economy-Politics of The Turkish World and Regional-Global Studies.

Çağla Yiğitbaş was born in Tokat in 1970. She received her master's degree in Public Health from Centennial University Faculty of Medicine (2009) and her PhD at Firat University Faculty of Medicine (2014). Yiğitbaş, who has many research studies in national and international indexes, also participated in scientific activities in these fields. Her research fields include elderly health, child health, women's health and chemical-biological-nuclear weapons research. She has taught undergraduate and master's courses in many professional groups in many institutions. She is currently working as a faculty member at Giresun University Faculty of Health Sciences. She is married with two children.

Merve Yildirim was born in Ankara. In 2013, she received her PhD from Gazi University Department of Educational Sciences Fine Arts Education with her work titled ‘Reflection of symbols on the art of exlibris in the historical process and a module proposal in the departments of visual communication and graphic design in the faculties of fine arts’. She is currently an Associate Professor. She is a member of the Giresun University Görele Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Graphic Design. She has papers which are presented at international and national scientific meetings and articles published in national peer-reviewed journals. The artist participated in many national and international group exhibitions. She has studied digital art. As a member of the Global Street Economy Platform, she also works on the design of streets.

Preface

Childhood is a fairy-tale period of human life that almost every adult would want to relive if one had not had a bad childhood. It is known that this special period is a vital beginning that is worth protecting physically, spiritually, psychologically and mentally and expresses the purest, cleanest and even the most beautiful period in a person's life. The value given to children and childhood varies from age to age and from society to society. In the muscle-intensive early ages, the consciousness formed against childhood was weaker and the importance given was less. As the human being came to the fore, with mental existence and quality of life gradually being increased, the importance given to childhood has increased. The state of childhood is best understood in the history of education. The fact that formal education has become compulsory has increased the importance given to children and has included them in a systematic institutional structure.

Children are individuals who have not reached puberty in psychological and mental aspects and have little knowledge and life experience. The first article of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every individual will be considered a child until they reach the age of 18. This requires the protection of every child in modern educational societies in terms of physical, mental and environmental conditions. Children cannot afford to live exactly what adults go through in this world, and they should not be burdened with responsibilities that they cannot bear. Children's nutrition, clothing, education, protection, arrangement of living spaces, suitability of their belongings, happiness, health, playgrounds and even unhappiness conditions must be unique to them. Children are not only the continuation of the human race, they are a symbol of humanity's future existence as well as the hope and the source of life – innocence. Therefore, children should be carefully protected and valued by central and local governments, families, caregivers, teachers and adults around the world, without any discrimination.

There has been gender discrimination in our world since human existence. This was followed by many forms of ethnic, religious, cultural, economic, ideological and political discrimination. Children were also affected by discriminatory attitudes, humiliated, persecuted and even killed. Gender Discrimination has not been eradicated in the last thousand years. Socrates, one of the ancient philosophers, refused to teach girls; Plato, on the other hand, argued that children should be separated into boys and girls after the age of six. This discriminatory understanding did not let go of girls when they became adults and made it impossible for women to take up academic, public and private positions for centuries. Gender discrimination in the West has not been experienced very differently in the Eastern world, where even in some eastern societies, much more severe conditions have come before them.

Modernism, which came with industrialisation, caused radical changes in human life and created a beginning for children to have better living and educational conditions. Industrialisation is a very important milestone in understanding the distinction between adults and children. However, children, known as ‘Victorian Child Labour’ in history, were employed as cheap labour force of the British industry as heavy workers in mines, factories, railway construction and chimney cleaning, and they were tied in chains to avoid escaping. Based on the exploitation of child labour caused by brutal capitalism, although the British Parliament made some protective decisions in the nineteenth century, the International Labour Organization (ILO) was established in 1919 and legal measures were taken regarding child labour. Despite this, there are still adults who view child labour as a source of income today. Even though this approach seems to be more common among low-income groups and in poor countries, multidimensional exploitation of child labour is seen worldwide.

In this book, we tried to express what it means to be a little child in a global world. We focused on the history of childhood, the history of children's rights and the development of science in modern times, rediscovering childhood and putting it under legal protection. As the title of the book suggests, children face the effects of changing regional and global conditions, no matter how protected they are.

In its mildest form, even the deterioration of environmental conditions has a severe impact on children. Moreover, in our world, war, occupation, siege, violence, terror, immigration, immigrant babies crossing borders under bombs and bullets, children subjected to massacre and genocide, child soldiers fighting at the forefront, child militants, child suicide volunteers and starvation situations are still real. The situation of children dying of thirst is dire indeed, and it deeply affects all humanity.

Children's rights that need to be protected and implemented can sometimes be violated and abused. Children's rights are as important as the rights to basic health, nutrition, accommodation, education and upbringing of children. Protecting the rights of the children who have committed crimes and serving their punishments under suitable conditions should be considered as a method of reintegrating these children into society in the future. On the other hand, the adaptation of newly developed concepts to childhood is an area that needs to be approached carefully in today's advanced technology world. In this context, the importance of areas such as children's ombudsman should increase in the implementation of cultural diplomacy and children's rights.

As the name suggests, we wanted to focus on the children of the world in our book. But we haven't been able to fit all of them into this book. For example, we could not talk about the children who died of hunger and war in Yemen; we could not adequately address the children who were deceived or kidnapped to be taken to terror camps in South-East Turkey, Syria and Iraq; we could not mention the children of genius, who stand out in science, sports and arts, as well as children of Africa who suffer from hunger and thirst. Likewise, we could not find the opportunity to talk about children killed, displaced and bombed in Arakan, Syria, and immigrant babies whose boats were sunk in the middle of the sea and their bodies washed ashore. Despite the United Nations' call for ‘ending crimes against children’, we could not give enough space to the murder of dozens of children in Palestine, the children who were subjected to genocide in Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, and the children murdered in Iraq. We couldn't put on our pages the assimilation and atrocities suffered by the children of East Turkestan, which is reflected in the media almost every day, and their situation in the concentration camps of China and the detachment of these tiny children from their families and their seizure by the state. The struggle for survival of children in difficult parts of the world under tension has become even more severe with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite all our shortcomings, in this book, a union of mind and heart has been made in the academic field on the protection of the world's children. In this huge sphere, the multi-dimensional conception of being a tiny child has been tried to be presented. Turkey has an accumulation of knowledge that the first kindergartens in the world (Sıbyan Schools) were opened during the Ottoman monarchy, in the Republic period, children were gifted the Children's Day and celebrated with the children of the world every year on April 23 for almost a century.

In this context, we also know that each individual is special, but the most special of these are children. Children are not just a minor model of adults, they are unique individuals in their own right. Based on this understanding, this book includes different studies on childhood and children's rights in many disciplines such as education, history, communication, art, law, politics, philosophy, economics and urbanisation that perceive children as unique individuals. With this state of mind, the book gives the message that children and children's rights are actually within the scope of every scientific discipline and that children should be taken into consideration in terms of every scientific discipline.

There are 26 chapters in the book in which different disciplines deal with and examine the concept of child and childhood. Each chapter sheds light on the problem in terms of its discipline. The fact that the disciplines such as diplomacy, art, history, public administration and international relations, which have not shown much interest in childhood and children's rights, have also brought their perspectives into its content constitutes the different and innovative aspect of this book. This book, which is the product of multi-disciplinary work, will contribute to scientists, students and all readers who study childhood and children's rights. More importantly, the book is expected to help develop holistic solutions to the problems experienced in this field by bringing together the perspectives and experiences of different disciplines. We would like to express our gratitude to all scientists and contributors who contributed to our book with their studies, referees and translations, to the valuable employees of Emerald Publishing House and to everyone who contributed. We hope that such a study will be useful for anyone interested in the subject.

Best regards,

Betül Karagöz Yerdelen, Kamuran Elbeyoğlu,

Yasemin Mamur, Işikçi Osman Sirkeci, Simon Grima and Rebecca Dalli Gonzi