Decolonizing Childhoods: From Exclusion to Dignity critically engages with a contextualised understanding of childhood studies in the Global South. By offering an in‐depth description of the history of colonialism, postcolonial theory and childhood studies, Liebel questions dominant discourses about childhood considered as 'natural phenomena'; and critiques the still visible dependency relationships between the Global North and the Global South in the social structures in which children in non‐western countries interact. Premised on an understanding of the social and situated construction of childhoods and how they are shaped by social relations and cultural, historical and institutional contexts, the author unpacks the consequences of the power structures inherited from the European colonialisation in the childhoods of the Global South. In so doing, the manuscript presents the effects of the 'postcolonial power constellation' in the daily lives of children as well as how the legacy of colonialism has consequences in contemporary ways of thinking about children. Liebel seeks to highlight the various facets of childhoods of the Global South and thus critically examines the production of an ideal childhood from the Global North that stereotypes and excludes childhoods distanced from Eurocentric norms, categories and possibilities. The author, from reading across previous childhood research, makes an important contribution to childhood studies through an emphasis and positioning from theories gleaned from the Global South. To pursue this task, Liebel examines different types of geopolitical inequalities (between Global South and Global North), unequal generational power relations (children‐adults) and institutional relations.

One of the main strengths of the book is the detailed explanation of concepts, in epistemic, political, sociological and pragmatic terms. Liebel traces the origins and applicability of crucial notions of his argument such as citizenship, human rights, protection, participation and paternalism, and redefines meanings by attending to the specificities of childhoods in the Global South. Liebel picks up, compiles and systematises the contributions on postcolonial frameworks by various authors from the Global North and the Global South to make his case of the study of postcolonial childhoods. The richness of Liebel's work lies in the illuminating use of previous studies conducted in Latin America, Africa and the 'former' settler colonies of the British Empire. Liebel provides a much‐needed account concerning citizenship by questioning its notions limited to formal procedures and defined as a future status for children. Liebel coined the concept 'citizenship from below' to frame the decisive roles of children in which they 'influence societal processes and political decisions, not only in the future, but in the present' (p. 192).

The book provides insightful ways to engage with complex debates and often controversial discussions around children: their relationship with adults, their agency and their rights. For instance, Liebel queries the assumptions that children's lives are separated from the sphere of adults. Liebel moves, then, among different framings of children's agency raised by key authors within the field. He, for example, claims that a synthesis between an understanding of an 'ambiguous agency' and 'situated theories of agency' would be the most appropriate way of approaching to childhood agency constrained by unequal relationships. Regarding the debates on universalistic and cultural‐relativistic norms on children's rights, Liebel advocates universal principles in the protection of children. However, he problematises possible contradictions in the implementation of assumed yardsticks in social contexts that present cultural and historical elements that should not be avoided. Consequently, Liebel proposes that ‘children's rights cannot be only “implemented” but must be culturally “translated”’ (p. 147).

In order to provide a stronger set of narrative claims and orientations proposed by Liebel, it would have been interesting to know more about the author's experiences conducting fieldwork in the Global South. Liebel explained that Decolonizing Childhoods emerged as a project from his many years researching with children in Latin America and Africa, however, there is not enough reference to the cases in which the author was involved. The inclusion of more personal experiences and accounts could have generated an even more compelling argument. Besides, it would have helped to understand the positioning of, as Liebel presented himself in the Introduction of his book, ‘an adult who has grown up and lives in a European context (…) writing about children whose lives and experiences are very different from mine’ (p. 4).

This book is relevant to scholars, practitioners, policy‐makers and students investigating childhoods emerging in Global South; and these decolonial underpinnings are crucial to grasp childhood studies worldwide. Liebel gathers a varied set of studies and theoretical propositions that consider the needs and particularities of childhoods positioned outside the western idealisations.

非童年时代：从排斥到尊严批判性地参与了对南方国家儿童研究的情境理解。通过对殖民主义的历史，后殖民理论和儿童研究进行深入的描述，利贝尔质疑了有关儿童时期被视为“自然现象”的主流论述。并批评了在非西方国家儿童互动的社会结构中，全球北方与南方南方之间仍然可见的依存关系。笔者基于对童年时期社会结构和位置结构的理解，以及它们如何受到社会关系以及文化，历史和制度背景的影响而形成的，他揭示了欧洲殖民地在南方南方童年时期继承的权力结构的后果。这样，该手稿介绍了“后殖民权力星座”在儿童日常生活中的影响，以及殖民主义的遗产如何对当代儿童思考方式产生影响。Liebel力求突出全球南方儿童时代的各个方面，从而批判性地考察了来自全球北方的理想儿童时代的产生，这种成见刻板并排除了偏离欧洲中心规范，类别和可能性的儿童时期。通过阅读以前的童年研究，作者从全球南方学到的理论的重点和定位为童年研究做出了重要贡献。为了完成这项任务，Liebel研究了不同类型的地缘政治不平等（在全球南方和全球北方之间），

本书的主要优势之一是用认识论，政治，社会学和实用主义的术语对概念进行详细的解释。利贝尔（Liebel）追溯了其论点的关键概念的起源和适用性，例如公民身份，人权，保护，参与和家长主义，并通过关注全球南方儿童的特殊性来重新定义含义。Liebel收集，汇编并系统化了来自全球北方和全球南方的多位作者对后殖民框架的贡献，以研究后殖民时期的童年为例。列贝尔的作品之丰富之处在于对拉丁美洲，非洲和大英帝国的“前”移民殖民地进行的先前研究具有启发性。Liebel通过质疑其关于仅限于正式程序并被定义为儿童的未来地位的概念，来提供有关公民身份的急需的说明。利贝尔（Liebel）创造了“来自下方的公民身份”的概念，以构架儿童的决定性角色，他们在其中“不仅影响未来，而且影响当前的社会进程和政治决策”（第192页）。

这本书提供了有洞察力的方式来参与有关儿童的复杂辩论和经常引起争议的讨论：他们与成年人的关系，他们的代理人和他们的权利。例如，Liebel质疑儿童生活与成人分开的假设。然后，Liebel在该领域主要作者提出的儿童代理机构的不同框架之间移动。例如，他声称，对“模棱两可的代理人”的理解与“代理人的局限性理论”之间的综合，将是处理受到不平等关系限制的童年代理人的最合适方法。关于关于儿童权利的普遍主义和文化相对主义规范的辩论，利贝尔主张保护儿童的普遍原则。然而，他提出了在社会语境中实施假定尺度的可能矛盾，这些矛盾呈现了不应避免的文化和历史因素。因此，里贝尔提出“儿童权利不仅可以被“实现”，而且必须在文化上被“翻译””（第147页）。

为了提供一组由Liebel提出的更强的叙事主张和方向，更多地了解作者在全球南方进行实地调查的经验将是很有趣的。利贝尔（Liebel）解释说，消除童年作为他多年来在拉丁美洲和非洲的儿童研究的项目而出现的一个项目，但是，对于作者所涉及的案例，没有足够的参考。包含更多的个人经验和帐户可能会引起更令人信服的争论。此外，这将有助于了解Liebel在书中的介绍中所描述的定位，即“一个成年人，他成长并生活在欧洲环境中（...），写的是其生活和经历与我的”（第4页）。

本书适合调查在南方南方出现的儿童时代的学者，从业人员，政策制定者和学生。这些非殖民主义基础对于掌握全球儿童研究至关重要。列贝尔（Liebel）收集了各种各样的研究和理论主张，这些研究和理论主张考虑了西方理想化之外的童年的需求和特殊性。