Summary
Contents
This book has already proved itself as a course adoption leader in Childhood Studies. All of the strengths of the First Edition have been retained. The book is comprehensive and judged with the needs of students in mind. It is a model of clarity and precision and has been acknowledged as such in reviews and course feedback. The new edition thoroughly revises old entries and adds new ones. The book is the most accessible, relevant student introduction to this expanding, interdisciplinary field. It is an indispensable teaching text and an ideal prompt for researchers.
Childhood Studies
Childhood Studies
The interdisciplinary study of the early period of the human life-course that is legally recognised and socially (as well as, in part, scientifically) defined as childhood, as distinct from adulthood.
Everybody ‘knows’ what a child and childhood are, because we have all been children and experienced childhood and because, as adults, we are surrounded by children living their childhoods in which, as adults, we are both participants and observers. These concepts are also a key component of social organisation and social structure, particularly in terms of generation and inter-generational relationships but also because of the significance of age in the allocation of resources and responsibilities in all cultures and societies. As discussed elsewhere in this volume, these concepts are complex and problematic; they ...
