Description
Book Synopsis"...explores some very timely and critical issues in the current development of Childhood Studies...It will be especially valuable for students because it integrates concrete empirical studies with reflection on underlying theoretical assumptions." - Leena Alanen, Professor in Early Childhood Education, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
This important book moves the sociology of childhood forward. Berry Mayall argues, that, since childhood is a permanent component of society, in order to understand how society works, we must take account of children as well as adults, otherwise our explanation omits an important social group. Children's lives are shaped by policies and practices, but they are also agents, who make a life for themselves through their relationships with adults and other children. This book argues that feminist theory and practice is useful for understanding childhood; we should start from the children's own accounts to show how the organisation of social relations
Trade Review"...explores some very timely and critical issues in the current development of Childhood Studies...It will be especially valuable for students because it integrates concrete empirical studies with reflection on underlying theoretical assumptions."-Leena Alanen, Professor in Early Childhood Education, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Studying childhood
Studying relational processes
Relations with parents
Childhood work
The moral status of childhood
Towards a child standpoint
Comparing childhoods
Generation and gender
Appendix
Bibliography
Index.
