Résumés
Abstract
Research Framework : Over the thirty years before World War I, expansion of the world economy occasioned new opportunities and new constraints for children and adolescents as well as adults; but experiences and responses of minors are understated in print sources.
Objectives : To discover what societal changes young people noticed and talked about, we examined the « children's page » of a weekly newspaper available for a rural setting in the South Island of New Zealand. The perspective of youth is essential to interpret trajectories inferred from the more conventional sources available in a North American urban setting (Montreal, Quebec).
Methodology : From the internet archive PapersPast we collected 12,000 letters of young people aged six through nineteen years, 1886-1909, and extracted their comments on two popular topics : the work they reported (paid or unpaid) and their accounts of toothache.
Results : The letters inform us about tasks of young people by age, gender, season, daily routine and household structure. Changes in work assignments at ages 12 to 14, coincident with a spurt of growth and, for most, the end of formal schooling, evoked discussion among them about gender roles and, among girls, protest of the scheduling of their growing up.
Conclusion : The seasonality of tasks assigned to children still in school indicates an unrecognized contribution to the elasticity of the rural economy on a global frontier of the industrial food supply. Reallocation of the labour of young people was an ongoing process, subject to negotiation.
Contribution : The wealth of information and opinion accessed in the letters invites further experiment with newspaper content analysis for recognizing the participation of segments of the population whose contributions to economic growth have been underestimated.
Keywords:
- children's letters,
- content analysis,
- adolescence,
- farm labour,
- child labour,
- life histories,
- 19th-century sources,
- New Zealand,
- Montreal
Résumé
Cadre de recherche : Durant les trente années qui précèdent la Grande Guerre, l’expansion de l’économie mondiale engendre de nouvelles possibilités et de nouvelles contraintes pour les enfants et les adolescents, comme pour les adultes. Cependant, l’avis des mineurs sur leurs expériences de travail est peu documenté dans les sources écrites.
Objectifs : Afin de découvrir les changements sociétaux qui ont affecté les jeunes, nous examinons la « page des enfants » d’un hebdomadaire rural de l’île du Sud de la Nouvelle-Zélande. Le point de vue des jeunes est essentiel à l’interprétation des trajectoires déduites des sources plus conventionnelles disponibles dans un contexte urbain nord-américain (Montréal, Québec).
Méthodologie : À partir du site web d’archives PapersPast, nous avons recueilli 12 000 lettres de jeunes âgés de 6 à 19 ans, publiées entre 1886 et 1909, et extrait leurs commentaires sur deux sujets populaires : le travail qu’ils effectuaient (avec ou sans rémunération), et leurs maux de dents.
Résultats : Les lettres nous informent des tâches assumées par les jeunes selon leur âge, leur sexe, la saison, la routine quotidienne et la structure familiale. Les changements dans la distribution des tâches entre 12 et 14 ans – changements qui coïncident avec une poussée de croissance et, pour la majorité, avec la fin de la scolarité – ont suscité des discussions à propos des comportements genrés et, chez les filles, de la résistance face à l’imposition d'un calendrier de leur passage à la vie adulte.
Conclusion : La saisonnalité des tâches confiées aux enfants témoigne d’une contribution méconnue à l’économie rurale, cette dernière faisant partie du paysage de l’approvisionnement alimentaire industriel à l’échelle mondiale. La réaffectation du travail des jeunes se révèle continue et négociable.
Contribution : Le foisonnement de l’information et des opinions contenues dans les lettres incite à étendre davantage l’expérimentation avec les sources journalistiques, afin de reconnaître la participation des groupes sociaux dont la contribution à la croissance économique demeure sous-estimée.
Mots-clés :
- lettres d’enfants,
- analyse de contenu,
- adolescence,
- travail à la ferme,
- travail des enfants,
- histoires de vie,
- Nouvelle-Zélande,
- Montréal
Parties annexes
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