ABSTRACT
By regarding children as actors and conducting empirical research on children’s agency, Childhood Studies have gained significant influence on a wide range of different academic disciplines. This has made agency one of the key concepts of Childhood Studies, with articles on the subject featured in handbooks and encyclopaedias.
Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood
is the first collection devoted to the central concept of agency in Childhood Studies. With contributions from experts in the field, the chapters cover theoretical, practical, historical, transnational and institutional dimensions of agency, rekindling discussion and introducing fundamental and contemporary sociological perspectives to the field of research. Particular attention is paid to connecting agency in the social sciences with Childhood Studies, considering both the theoretical foundations and the practice of research into agency. Empirical case studies are also explored, which focus upon child protection, schools and childcare at a variety of institutions worldwide.
This book is an essential reference for students and scholars of Childhood Studies, and is also relevant to Sociology, Social Work, Education, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Geography.
Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at https://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part Section I|85 pages
Theoretical perspectives
chapter Chapter 1|15 pages
Re-aligning children's agency and re-socialising children in Childhood Studies
chapter Chapter 2|14 pages
Children as participants in practices
chapter Chapter 3|13 pages
Neither "thick" nor "thin"
chapter Chapter 4|14 pages
Children's agency
part Section II|30 pages
Children as actors in research
chapter Chapter 8|14 pages
Playing with socially constructed identity positions
part Section III|48 pages
Agency in historical perspective
chapter Chapter 10|15 pages
Martha Muchow's research on children's life space
chapter Chapter 11|16 pages
"Children need boundaries"
part Section IV|44 pages
Transnational and majority world perspectives of agency
chapter Chapter 13|14 pages
Do the "mollycoddled" act?
chapter Chapter 14|14 pages
Context matters!
part Section V|68 pages
Agency in institutions of childhood