Abstract
The editors reflect on the nature of binary thinking arising in various forms in chapters presented in this volume. While related pairs of binary opposites enable the structuring of human experience, such thinking can be misleading if we fail to move beyond it. The chapter points to the need to discriminate in how to use this kind of classification. It points to both the necessity and the difficulty in overcoming the North–South divide in the current academic climate.
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- 1.
The failure of traditional social work to take adequate account of the situation of communities, and the consequent failure to protect targeted children, has been recognised by some in the field (see Lonne et al. 2009).
- 2.
Young Lives—An International Study of Childhood Poverty. http://www.younglives.org.uk/ (last accessed 03.04.2018)
- 3.
More of the numerous obstacles to participation in ongoing academic debates that scholars in Majority world countries face are discussed in Beazley et al. (2009).
- 4.
A second, involving a comparison between Chile and the UK, was withdrawn on account of the UK partner’s schedule.
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Bourdillon, M., Meichsner, S., Twum-Danso Imoh, A. (2019). Reflections on Binary Thinking. In: Twum-Danso Imoh, A., Bourdillon, M., Meichsner, S. (eds) Global Childhoods beyond the North-South Divide. Palgrave Studies on Children and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95543-8_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95543-8_13
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