Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary issues in the sociological study of childhood

Front Cover
Allison James, Alan Prout
Routledge, May 8, 2015 - Education - 246 pages
When the first edition of this seminal work appeared in 1990, the sociology of childhood was only just beginning to emerge as a distinct sub-discipline. Drawing together strands of existing sociological writing about childhood and shaping them into a new paradigm, the original edition of this Routledge Classic offered a potent blend of ideas that informed, even inspired, many empirical studies of children’s lives because it provided a unique lens through which to think about childhood. Featuring a collection of articles which summarised the developments in the study of childhood across the social sciences, including history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, feminist and developmental studies, scholars and professionals from developed and developing countries world-wide shared their knowledge of having worked and of working with children.

Now with a new introduction from the editors to contextualise it into the 21st century, this truly ground-breaking text which helped establish childhood studies as a distinctive field of enquiry is being republished.

 

Contents

Introduction
1
provenance promise and problems
6
an interpretative survey 1800 to the present
29
3 Psychology and the cultural construction of childrens needs
54
a plea for childrens right to be heard
74
Disneyland the family and the multiple rerepresentations of American childhood
94
changing constructions of age for Norwegian children
111
deconstructing a construct
128
children power and the struggle against sexual abuse
145
a comparative perspective on the globalization of childhood
167
time and transition in the study of childhood
202
Notes on Contributors
220
Index
223
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2015)

Allison James is Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Alan Prout is Professor of Sociology and Childhood Studies at the University of Leeds, UK.

Bibliographic information