ABSTRACT
Introduction Since the late 1980s there has been an increasing interest in listening to children's experiences and viewpoints, as separate to and different from their adult carers, an interest in line with the establishment of a new paradigm for the study of childhood, which seeks to explore childhood, children's relationships and cultures as areas of study in their own right (see James and Prout 1990). The emergence of the paradigm in part reflects a move away from seeing children as passive recipients of adult socialization, to a recognition that children are social actors in their own right, are active participants in the construction and determination of their experiences, other people's lives, and the societies in which they live.
