Author: Allison JamesPublisher: Polity
ISBN: 9780745615646
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Theorizing Childhood
Author: Allison JamesPublisher:
ISBN: 9780807737309
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
Drawing on contemporary sociological and anthropological research, this text develops key links between the study of childhood and social theory, exposing its historical, political and cultural dimensions, revealing childhood's socially constructed character.
Theorizing Childhood
Author: Allison JamesPublisher: Polity
ISBN: 9780745615653
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
In recent years there has been a rapid growth of interest in the sociological study of childhood. This book brings together the major developments in the field. Drawing on a large body of contemporary sociological and anthropological research, the book develops key links between the study of childhood and social theory, exposing its historical, political and cultural dimensions. Through a consideration of the twin dimensions of childhood - as a structural feature of societies and as a context of children's everyday lives - the book reveals childhood's socially constructed character. Exploring the spatial and temporal boundaries of children's lives, the authors set out the theoretical contexts within which more empirical studies of childhood are embedded. Rather than using conventional categories of home, school and play, Theorizing Childhood is organized round themes such as space, time, culture, the body and work. In this way, the book explores the differences in recent approaches to childhood research, inviting valuable new insights into the study of childhood. Theorizing Childhood is a timely book which demonstrates the centrality of childhood in sociological theory and contemporary debates concerning the state, welfare and morality.
Childhood
Author: Chris JenksPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000142841
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
In this book Chris Jenks looks at what the ways in which we construct our image of childhood can tell us about ourselves. After a general discussion of the social construction of childhood, the book is structured around three examples of the way the image of the child is played out in society: the history of childhood from medieval times through the enlightenment 'discovery' of childhood to the present the mythology and reality of child abuse and society's response to it the 'death' of childhood in cases such as the James Bulger murder in which the child itself becomes the perpetrator of evil. Part of the highly successful Key Ideas series, this book gives students a concise, provocative insight into some of the controlling concepts of our culture.
Theorising Childhood
Author: Claudio BaraldiPublisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319726730
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278
Book Description
Focusing on children's citizenship, participation and rights, this edited collection draws on the work of a number of leading scholars in the sociology of childhood. The contributors explore a range of themes including: tensions between pragmatism and grand theory; revisiting agency/structure debates in the light of children; the challenging of binary thought prevalent in studies around 'generations' and other aspects of sociology; the manifestation of power in time and space; the application of theories into the 'real' world through NGOs, practitioners, policy makers, politicians and empirical research. The collection will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including childhood studies, sociology, politics and social policy, as well as policy makers and practitioners interested in the citizenship, rights and participation of children.
Constructing Childhood
Author: Allison JamesPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0230214274
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244
Book Description
This text provides a critical analysis of the social construction of childhood and children's agency. Through an interdisciplinary synthesis combining social theory, social policy and the empirical findings of social science research, it bridges the current gap between theory and practice, offering an incisive theoretical account of childhood that is grounded in substantive areas of children's lives such as health, education, crime and the family. This furthers understanding of the impact of policy on children's everyday lives and social experiences.
The Early Reader in Children's Literature and Culture
Author: Jennifer MiskecPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317394763
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
This is the first volume to consider the popular literary category of Early Readers – books written and designed for children who are just beginning to read independently. It argues that Early Readers deserve more scholarly attention and careful thought because they are, for many younger readers, their first opportunity to engage with a work of literature on their own, to feel a sense of mastery over a text, and to experience pleasure from the act of reading independently. Using interdisciplinary approaches that draw upon and synthesize research being done in education, child psychology, sociology, cultural studies, and children’s literature, the volume visits Early Readers from a variety of angles: as teaching tools; as cultural artifacts that shape cultural and individual subjectivity; as mass produced products sold to a niche market of parents, educators, and young children; and as aesthetic objects, works of literature and art with specific conventions. Examining the reasons such books are so popular with young readers, as well as the reasons that some adults challenge and censor them, the volume considers the ways Early Readers contribute to the construction of younger children as readers, thinkers, consumers, and as gendered, raced, classed subjects. It also addresses children’s texts that have been translated and sold around the globe, examining them as part of an increasingly transnational children’s media culture that may add to or supplant regional, ethnic, and national children’s literatures and cultures. While this collection focuses mostly on books written in English and often aimed at children living in the US, it is important to acknowledge that these Early Readers are a major US cultural export, influencing the reading habits and development of children across the globe.
Theorizing Feminist Ethics of Care in Early Childhood Practice
Author: Rachel LangfordPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350067490
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 245
Book Description
This open access book responds to a growing academic interest in theorizing care and care work in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. The contributors theorize a new feminist ethics of care in everyday early childhood practice, revealing its complexities and importance. Drawing on feminist theories and philosophies, the chapter authors show how the caring practices of early childhood educators involve values, emotions, decision-making, action and work. Using cutting-edge theory, authors address the social locations and the inclusion and exclusion of both care givers and care receivers. With contributions from Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA, the volume brings together early childhood studies, sociology, psychology, philosophy and critical disability studies to offer diverse perspectives on feminist ethics of care in early childhood practice and its possibilities and dangers. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.
Boundaries of Touch
Author: Jean HalleyPublisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252091450
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
A history of the shifting and conflicting ideas about when, where, and how we should touch our children Discussing issues of parent-child contact ranging from breastfeeding to sexual abuse, Jean O'Malley Halley traces the evolution of mainstream ideas about touching between adults and children over the course of the twentieth century in the United States. Debates over when a child should be weaned and whether to allow a child to sleep in the parent's bed reveal deep differences in conceptions of appropriate adult-child contact. Boundaries of Touch shows how arguments about adult-child touch have been politicized, simplified, and bifurcated into "naturalist" and "behaviorist" viewpoints, thereby sharpening certain binary constructions such as mind/body and male/female. Halley discusses the gendering of ideas about touch that were advanced by influential social scientists and parenting experts including Benjamin Spock, Alfred C. Kinsey, and Luther Emmett Holt. She also explores how touch ideology fared within and against the post-World War II feminist movements, especially with respect to issues of breastfeeding and sleeping with a child versus using a crib. In addition to contemporary periodicals and self-help books on child rearing, Halley uses information gathered from interviews she conducted with mothers ranging in age from twenty-eight to seventy-three. Throughout, she reveals how the parent-child relationship, far from being a private or benign subject, continues as a highly contested, politicized affair of keen public interest.
The Autonomous Child
Author: Ivar FrønesPublisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319251007
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 123
Book Description
The social sciences offer a variety of theories on how children develop, and various theories and disciplines apply their own vocabularies and conceptualise different aspects of the processes of socialization. This book looks at the theorizing of socialization in sociology, anthropology, psychology, in the life course approach, and as the interplay of genetics and environmental factors. It analyses the dominant perspectives and viewpoints within each discipline and field, and shows how the various theories and disciplines apply their own vocabularies and conceptualise different aspects of the processes of socialization. It argues that socialization does not represent a fixed trajectory into a static social order, and that different disciplines meet the challenges of complex developmental processes and changing environments in different ways. Socialization is a fundamental concept in sociology, but sociology has only to a limited degree sought to produce a coherent understanding of the processes of socialization, which has to encompass the interplay of societal, psychological and genetic factors. This book draws the threads together and, by doing so, offers a general framework for our understanding of the socialization process. At the centre of this process is the child as a subject, in an interplay with the patterns and significant others of the micro environment as well as with the macro-conditions of the modern knowledge based economies.
