Theories and Concepts of Childhood (original) (raw)

Introduction: Symposium on The Nature and Value of Childhood

Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2018

Children and childhood have been largely ignored by philosophers outside the philosophy of education. Recently this has started to change. In particular, the past few decades have seen a growing interest in children as subjects of political philosophy, with a focus on questions concerning duties of justice towards children and especially parental duties, as well as parental rights and filial duties. Most of the current debates rest on more foundational positions about the nature and value of childhood, issues that are not normally given the same scrutiny. The purpose of this symposium is to examine precisely these foundational questions.

The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children

Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy, 2019

Childhood looms large in our understanding of human life, as a phase through which all adults have passed. Childhood is foundational to the development of selfhood, the formation of interests, values and skills and to the lifespan as a whole. Understanding what it is like to be a child, and what differences childhood makes, are thus essential for any broader understanding of the human condition. The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children is an outstanding reference source for the key topics, problems and debates in this crucial and exciting field and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into five parts: · Being a child · Childhood and moral status · Parents and children · Children in society · Children and the state. Questions covered include: What is a child? Is childhood a uniquely valuable state, and if so why? Can we generalize about the goods of childhood? What rights do children have, and are they different from adults’ rights? What (if anything) gives people a right to parent? What role, if any, ought biology to play in determining who has the right to parent a particular child? What kind of rights can parents legitimately exercise over their children? What roles do relationships with siblings and friends play in the shaping of childhoods? How should we think about sexuality and disability in childhood, and about racialised children? How should society manage the education of children? How are children’s lives affected by being taken into social care? The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children is essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of childhood, political philosophy and ethics as well as those in related disciplines such as education, psychology, sociology, social policy, law, social work, youth work, neuroscience and anthropology.

Understanding childhood: An introduction to some key themes and issues

MJ Kehily (red.), An introduction to childhood studies, 2004

Recent developments in education and the social sciences have seen the growth of childhood studies as an academic field of enquiry. Over the last decade or so childhood studies has become a recognized area of research and analysis, reflected in the success of publications such as James and Prout (1997) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood and Stainton Rogers and Stainton Rogers (1992) Stories of Childhood: Shifting Agendas of Child Concern. A growing body of literature points to the importance of childhood as a conceptual category and as a social position for the study of a previously overlooked or marginalized group -children. Childhood studies as a field of academic endeavour offers the potential for interdisciplinary research that can contribute to an emergent paradigm wherein new ways of looking at children can be researched and theorized. This book aims to bring together key themes and issues in the area of childhood studies in ways that will provide an introduction to students and practitioners working in this field.

Social Constructions of Childhood (2007)

Childhood and Youth Studies, 2012

Each of us has experienced not one, but two childhoods: the first as a biological state of growth and development and a second as a social construction, which is to say as an institution that has been socially created. If this is true then it follows that childhood is dependent on the nature of a society into which an individual is born and will vary from place to place and time to time. In the last half of the twentieth century a number of thinkers and writers in a variety of fields began to consider the ways in which this process of constructing childhood has been carried out, both in the past and today, and what the implications are for our experience of childhood and for current and future generations of children. If we accept this thesis then it follows that we can only understand childhood if we comprehend how it has been formed and how it varies and changes.

Concepts of childhood: what we know and where we might go (2007)

Renaissance Quarterly, 2007

The publication some forty years ago of the landmark work by Philippe Ariès, entitled Centuries of Childhood in its widely-read English translation, unleashed decades of scholarly investigation of that once-neglected target, the child. Since then, historians have uncovered the traces of attitudes toward children -were they neglected, exploited, abused, cherished? -and patterns of child-rearing. They have explored such issues, among others, as the varieties of European household structure; definitions of the stages of life; childbirth, wetnursing, and the role of the midwife; child abandonment and the foundling home; infanticide and its prosecution; apprenticeship, servitude, and fostering; the evolution of schooling; the consequences of religious diversification; and the impact of gender. This essay seeks to identify key features and recent trends amid this abundance of learned inquiry.

Understanding Childhood: A literature Review

International journal of positivity & well-being, 2024

A child's identity can be explained by certain characteristics such as age, size, and physical developments and so on. Children are critical for the continuance of the human society. The journey through childhood determines individual personalities and the ability to handle the demands and responsibilities of adulthood. Every society is and should be interested in the well-being of the child. The concept of childhood consists of all the experiences happening within this period of life. The vulnerability of the child has not only prompted interest in the person of the child, but also makes it necessary to legalize laws and rights, enforce rules to protect and ensure its well-being by governing bodies, parents, cultural practices and so on. Different approaches and schools of thoughts have debated the main determinants and components of childhood, and the resulting behaviors in later life. This paper is based on the need to understand the background of human behavior which is ultimately traced to childhood components and experiences. This paper is theoretical in nature and has reviewed scholarly articles on the genetics, cultural, and anthropological components of childhood, carefully selected from credible and accredited databases. This paper also discusses, objectively, the criticisms facing these approaches to childhood, such as the child's personality trait, people's perception of who a child is, and the use of media to facilitate those perceptions. Lastly, the paper establishes the individualism of a child regardless of external factors, as a main contributor to the personality and behavior of the child, and later as an adult member of the society, making a huge impact on the success of that society.

Chapter 2-The Constructions and Representations of Childhood

The ideology of childhood is a conceptual category with many diverse positions to research and analyse. It is apparent that childhood is of a constructed and reconstructed essence, due to the irregularity in the concepts of childhood in previous historical periods and within different cultures and societies (Schaffer, 2010). However, historically in medieval society the notion of childhood did not exist, Philippe Aries and Neil Postman both suggest that the known concept of childhood is a recently modern phenomenon (Clark McDowall, 2015). In previous historical periods children were viewed as miniature adults, Aries (1962) states that the awareness and knowledge around the distinguished differences between adults and children was lacking, hence why children were treated the same as adults. Through a political lens the concept of childhood is constructed through institutions and the government, both of which have high control over the political body of childhood. This sense of construction is the most apparent in laws and policies surrounding childhood (Millei, 2014), these policies do however treat childhood as one universal experience which is considered to be inaccurate as the notion of childhood is individual to each particular culture and society. Adding to the ongoing

A Critical Perspective on Education Through the Concept of Childhood

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013

The main topic discussed in the sociology of childhood is whether childhood is a universal and ideal construct, or a construct that is based on changing cultural and historic trends, which represent many different variations of childhood. Another debate relating to this issue is one which questions whether children are actually active-creative subjects, or just objects in the face of structural inequalities that continue to maintain their status of dependendency. The purpose of this study is to bring a critical perspective to educational understanding and practices. This paper will explore the roots of childhood from a sociological point of view. Furthermore, it will take an interdisciplinary approach, studying the topic through the lense of sociology and educational studies in order to ascertain a clearer picture with regard to the concept of 'childhood.'

Book Review: The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children

CEPS Journal, 2021

The fact that children are greatly puzzled about the world around them is no news. However, the idea that children can, due to their naturally conditioned philosophical openness, pose philosophical questions that are relevant and very valuable to us all has only recently been embraced by scholars. This and, for example, children's rights to their sexuality as well as to work instead of going to school are just a few of the triggering points evoking further interest in reading this much-needed collection of essays, which finally provides in one place an introductory insight into the state-of-the-art contemporary debate surrounding the philosophy of children. The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children comprises thirty-six essays collected by three editors. Anca Gheaus, a political philosopher interested in justice and the normative significance of personal relationships, has published numerous journal articles and book chapters and is currently writing a monograph on child-centred childrearing. Gideon Calder, a social and political philosopher, has authored or edited ten books, including How Inequality Runs in Families, and is a co-editor of the Routledge journal Ethics and Social Welfare. Jurgen De Wispelaere, whose research interests are at the intersection of political theory and public policy, is a Political Economy Research Fellow with the ISRF and a Policy Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research. With well-distributed topics that have been largely set aside for most of the history of philosophy, the editors have structured a handbook that provides timely guidance to the world of neglected questions that have only recently