ABSTRACT
This chapter will discuss theoretical and methodological approaches to researching children’s identification with place and nation. Surprisingly, this issue has been relatively little discussed in the national identity literature or, indeed, in the literature on place. The general topic of childhood and children has, however, long been established in academic work, most centrally in sociology and psychology though often in quite polarised and monodisciplinary terms. Each has generated distinctive and indeed multiple approaches to understanding childhood, not all of which sit easily together. There is a general tension between the sociological and psychological ‘stance’; more particularly, there are different strands of theoretical commitment within each discipline. Certain traditions in psychology are more attuned to the sociological enterprise, for example, than others. In order to discuss the methodology of researching children, such differences and tensions need to be thought through, not least because the methods proposed – frequently polarising along the qualitative/quantitative axis – are often seen as incompatible with each other. We begin, then, with a discussion of the key theoretical approaches to studying children. We then move on to introduce our own research with children in middle childhood in Wales, and thence to focus in on methodological strategy and technique. We also introduce the national context of the study with a brief introduction to some aspects of the sociology of Wales.
