International children's rights discourses are centred on the principles of child protection and participation. Underpinning these discourses is the assumption that when children express their views they will support children's rights principles. However, this is not a guarantee. On key issues affecting their lives such as children's work and labour, children's views are often in striking opposition to the dominant children's rights discourse. This can be attributed to the fact that children's views show a more nuanced assessment of their situation which challenge simplistic dichotomies about good vs bad. Thus, there is a need to move beyond simple dichotomies and, instead, seek to understand the complexities of children's lives. This article contributes to this discussion by exploring children's perceptions of the physical punishment they experience at the hands of parents and other primary caregivers in Ghana and the meanings they themselves attach to the practice. Further, it examines the implications this has for the dominant children's rights discourse. Data presented in this paper are based on a one-year project funded by the Nuffield Foundation in the UK.

The challenges that sub-Saharan Africa has faced in the post-colonial period have come to characterise the way the region is perceived. These narratives are especially evident in the various ways children’s lives are discussed, leading to a particular focus on childhoods in difficult circumstances or at the margins. This has eclipsed the mundanities of everyday life for many children whose lives are not characterised by ‘lacks’. This article seeks to move beyond an overwhelming focus on childhoods defined by what they lack by illustrating the multitude of childhoods which exist in the continent.

All of you are actively participating in the ongoing discussions that are taking place in the interdisciplinary field of childhood studies through your own scholarly work and efforts to shape this dynamic field. What has brought you to this field and what do you find particularly interesting and fascinating in the work produced today in childhood studies? Feel free to refer to your own work and interests when discussing this. Afua My interest in childhood studies was rather accidental I would say. After completing my BA degree in History and Sociology I decided to embark on a Masters in Development Studies as I felt that was the career path I wanted to follow. This was a decision I made after spending 10 weeks in Ghana the previous summer undertaking fieldwork for my undergraduate dissertation. At this point I was not aware of any debates in childhood studies and I was not especially driven to study development due to any special interest in children's wellbeing or welfare in the South. However, early on during my Masters degree one of my modules focused on complex emergencies and the issue of children involved in armed conflicts was raised. For some reason, this topic struck a chord within me and I became somewhat fixated on this issue. What seemed to interest me in particular was how childhood was understood in societies where children were involved in armed conflict. I completed my MSc dissertation on the issue of child soldiers focusing on Sierra Leone and Liberia (Twum-Danso, 2000). However, the question of how childhood is constructed and understood in different societies remained on my mind and eventually I embarked on a PhD project which sought to explore constructions of childhood in Ghana and the implications for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Twum-Danso, 2008). It was when I started my PhD that I began to engage with the childhood studies literature (theoretical and methodological). It was at this point that I encountered the works of key thinkers of the time in childhood studies:

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