Societal position of childhood: the international project Childhood as a Social Phenomenon

Abstract

In this brief overview only a few points could be sketched. Other important issues have been the consequences for children of the break up of the family, such as di vorce and consensual unions; the legal position of children has been of interest, as it has also gained importance internationally in recent years through the new UN child convention. Generally, however, the importance of the project lies, we believe, in its efforts to bring structural, sociological and economic theories and methods to bear on childhood, while perceiving childhood as a social construction. It has been a central idea from the outset, that there was nothing mysterious about children that preven ted us from approaching childhood scientifically as any other social category is ap proached. This is, we believe, one way of taking children seriously.*

Student participation in school design: one school's approach to student engagement in the BSF process

“…Historically, children and young people have been characterised in adult society as being incompetent, unskilled and incapable of making decisions about the social world that directly affects them (Qvortrup 1991(Qvortrup , 1993a(Qvortrup , 1993bQvortrup et al 1994). This myth has been perpetuated in the public psyche and general discourse by the categorisation of children as 'angels' or 'devils'; either innocent in a corrupt world, or as maleficent creatures which need the badness schooled or even knocked out of them (Valentine 1996(Valentine , 2004James and Prout 1997;James et al 1998;Holloway and Valentine 2000;Valentine 2004).…”

What Can Reading and Games Tell Us about Today's Children?

“…Within the project, different cultural and national models of childhood were described (Qvortrup 1993). The project was based on the idea of social construction of childhood.…”

Conducting qualitative interviews with children – methodological and ethical challenges

“…First, a shift in the conceptualization of childhood (Qvotrup 1993;Brannen -O'Brien 1995;Christensen -Prout 2005) that also significantly influences how research is conducted (Punch 2002a). Second, the acknowledgement of children's rights, and especially an emphasis on their participatory rights (Morrow -Richards 1996).…”