Kindliche Kombattanten als sozial kompetente Akteure? Kindersoldaten, Childhood-Studies und Subjektperspektiven(Child soldiers as socially competent actors? Childhood studies and the perspectives of child soldiers)

Child soldiers embody the counter image to the ideal of (western) modern childhood as a period of protection and education. Children become soldiers in societies that sometimes have different conceptions of childhood or different transitions to adult status. Nevertheless, the use of children as soldiers is by no means a cultural tradition of quasi pre-modern societies. The massive adult-directed involvement of children in armed conflicts is related to the emergence of diverse, sometimes new, violence markets in the context of a globalized capitalist world system. The use of child soldiers is particularly profitable in the so-called ‘new wars’ for raw materials and resources. Our approach draws on theoretical developments in the new childhood studies as a basis for using the sociological concept of social actorship to generate a differentiated analysis of the phenomenon of “child soldiers”. We pay attention to questions of actorship to move beyond the presumptions that attend the blanket status of ‘victim’.