ABSTRACT

Different Childhoods: Non/Normative Development and Transgressive Trajectories opens up new avenues for exploring children’s development as contextual, provisional and locally produced, rather than a unitary, universal and consistent process. This edited collection frames a critical exploration of the trajectory against which children are seen to be ‘different’ within three key themes: deconstructing ‘developmental tasks’, locating development and the limits of childhood. Examining the particular kinds of ‘transgressive’ development, contributors discuss instances of ‘difference’ including migration, work, assumptions of vulnerability, trans childhoods, friendships and involvement in crime. Including both empirical and theoretical discussions, the book builds on existing debates as part of the interrogation of ‘different childhoods’. This book provides essential reading for students wishing to explore notions of development while also being of interest to both academics and practitioners working across a broad area of disciplines such as developmental psychology, sociology, childhood studies and critical criminology.

part |48 pages

Deconstructing ‘developmental tasks’

chapter |17 pages

Exploring leisure, hobbies and special interests

The constructive role of special interests for children with ASD

chapter |16 pages

Beyond boy and girl

Gender variance in childhood and adolescence

chapter |14 pages

Becoming a popular girl

Exploring constructions of friendships in teen magazines

part |47 pages

Locating development

chapter |16 pages

‘The failed child of the ­failing mother’

Situating the development of child eating practices and the scrutiny of maternal foodwork

chapter |13 pages

Family relationships and troubled masculinities

The experience of young men in contact with social care services

chapter |17 pages

Beyond vulnerability

Working with children who have experienced domestic violence

part |54 pages

The limits of childhood

chapter |13 pages

Independent migrant children, humanitarian work and statecraft

Mapping the connections in South Africa

chapter |12 pages

Parricides, school shootings and child soldiers

Constructing criminological phenomena in the context of children who kill

chapter |11 pages

Conclusion

Theorising transgressive developmental trajectories and understanding children seen as ‘different’