Exploring Childhood And Youth

This exciting new book illustrates and analyses the complexities of children's and young people’s everyday lived experiences throughout childhood. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it provides theoretical frameworks and case studies to critically examine assumptions in the field and explore emerging perspectives. Considering different stages throughout childhood and youth, chapters cover key topics such as eating practices, gender, play, digital media and the environment. Drawing upon insights from cultural studies, sociology, social anthropology, psychology, health and education, this book focuses on four key areas: Bodies and minds Space, place and belonging Inequalities and inclusion Childhood in the past, present and future Essential reading for students on childhood and youth and education courses, Exploring Childhood and Youth is an important resource for practitioners working with children and young people, and for parents, communities and legislators who have influence over children’s and young people’s lives.

This book explores the alternative experiences of children and young people whose everyday lives contradict ideas and ideals of normalcy from the local to the global context. Presenting empirical research and conceptual interventions from a variety of international contexts, this book seeks to contribute to understandings of alterity, agency and everyday precarity. The young lives foregrounded in this volume include the experiences of transnational families, children in ethnic minority communities, street-living young people, disabled children, child soldiers, victims of abuse, politically active young people, working children and those engaging with alternative education. By exploring ‘other’ ways of being, doing, and thinking about childhood, this book addresses questions around what it is to be a child and what it is to be marginalised in society. The narratives explore the everydayness and the mundanity of difference as they are experienced through social structures and relationships, simultaneously recognizing and critiquing notions of agency and power. This book, including a discussion resource for teaching or peer reading groups, will appeal to academics, students and researchers across subject disciplines including Human Geography, Children’s Geography, Social Care and Childhood Studies.

Exploring Childhood in a Comparative Context meets an increasing need for students focusing on early childhood to be familiar with alternative practices in other countries. Providing a ready-made source of information about a wide range of countries including Finland, the Netherlands, the United States, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa and many more, the book clearly describes the way each country understands and conceptualises childhood. Each chapter includes contextual information about the country, an introduction to the theory that has shaped practice and describes the curriculum for pre-school and primary education. Including vignettes from practitioners working in each country to illustrate practice, the chapters explore key themes such as: Child development Parental involvement Teaching and learning Professionalism Assessment Pupil experience. Accessibly written and including opportunities for reflection, this timely new book will give students a valuable insight into alternative education systems that is essential if they are to become practitioners with a current and global approach.

This book introduces the inter-disciplinary study of childhood and youth and the multi-agency practice of professionals who serve the needs of children, young people and their families. Exploring key theories and central ideas, research methodology, policy and practice, it takes a holistic, contextual approach that values difference and diversity. It examines concepts such as identity, representation, creativity and discourse and issues such as ethnicity, gender and the ′childhood in crisis′ thesis. Furthermore, it challenges opinion by exploring complex and controversial modern-day issues, and by engaging with a range of perspectives to highlight debates within the field.

The sociology of childhood and youth has sparked international interest in recent years, and yet a reader highlighting Canadian work in this field has been long overdue. Filling this gap in the literature, The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada brings together cutting-edge Canadian scholarship in this important and growing discipline. Thought-provoking and timely, this edited collection explores a breadth of essential topics, including research on and with children and youth, the social construction of childhood and youth, intersecting identities, and citizenship, rights, and social engagement. With a focus on social justice, the contributing authors critically examine various sites of inequality in the lives of children and young people, such as gender, sexuality, colonialism, race, class, and disability. Encouraging further development of Canadian scholarship in the sociology of childhood and youth, this unique collection ensures that young people’s voices are heard by involving them in the research process. Pedagogical supports—including learning objectives, study questions, suggested research assignments, and a comprehensive glossary—make this volume an invaluable resource for students of childhood and youth studies in Canada.

This book examines how and why, in the context of International Relations, children’s subjecthood has all too often been relegated to marginal terrains and children themselves automatically associated with the need for protection in vulnerable situations: as child soldiers, refugees, and conflated with women, all typically with the accent on the Global South. Challenging us to think critically about childhood as a technology of global governance, the authors explore alternative ways of finding children and their agency in a more central position in IR, in terms of various forms of children’s activism, children and climate change, children and security, children and resilience, and in their inevitable role in governing the future. Focusing on the problems, pitfalls, promises, and prospects of addressing children and childhoods in International Relations, this book places children more squarely in the purview of political subjecthood and hence more centrally in IR.

Key Issues in Childhood and Youth Studies presents an informed and critical commentary on a range of key issues related to children and childhood, from birth to eighteen years. Challenging current orthodoxies within the adult world on the nature of childhood, it is an essential text for students of childhood and youth studies as well as those studying relevant professional qualifications in social work, teaching and health. Exploring ideas from the historical development of childhood to the demonising of youth, it is divided into five clearly defined sections, each with their own editorial introduction which highlights the key themes. The sections focus on: the concept and creation of childhood child development ideas of risk, protection and childhood the politics of childhood international perspectives on childhood. This invaluable textbook provides an overview of childhood and youth studies and encourages students to think about the issues discussed and to develop their own ideas. Each chapter contains student activities, key concept boxes, recommended further reading and a reflection exercise.

A full-color trip through the treasures of American Childhood from 1650 to today. Remember the toys you played with when you were growing up? Each of those objects has a story to tell about the history of American childhood and play. Construction toys like Lincoln Logs and Erector Set offer insight into America’s booming urban infrastructure in the early 1910s and 20s, and the important role toys played in preparing children for future careers in engineering and architecture. A stuffed toy monkey from Germany tells the story of young Jewish refugees to the United States during World War II. The board game Candyland has its origins in the dreaded polio epidemic of 1950s. Exploring Childhood and Play Through 50 Historic Treasures brings together a collection of beloved toys and games from the last two centuries to guide readers on a journey through the history of American childhood and play, 1840-2000. Through color photographs and short essays on each object, this book examines childhood against the backdrop of culture, politics, religion, technology, gender, parenting philosophies, and more. The book features ten categories of objects including board and electronic games, dolls, action figures, art toys, optical toys, animal toys, construction sets, and sports. Each essay tells the story of the individual object its historic context, and each passage builds upon one another to create a fascinating survey of how childhood and play changed over the course of two centuries.