Scarcity and Surplus

This article explores the multiple meanings of children and childhood in Nicaragua during periods of dramatic sociopolitical and economic transitions. The article compares the state's responsibilities to Nicaraguan children and their families during the decade of revolution and first year of the post-revolutionary period. It argues that each state supported a particular construction of childhood that produced a certain ideal of the Nicaraguan child. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright 2007.]