This exciting new book illustrates and analyses the complexities of children's and young people’s everyday lived experiences throughout childhood. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it provides theoretical frameworks and case studies to critically examine assumptions in the field and explore emerging perspectives. Considering different stages throughout childhood and youth, chapters cover key topics such as eating practices, gender, play, digital media and the environment.
Drawing upon insights from cultural studies, sociology, social anthropology, psychology, health and education, this book focuses on four key areas:
- Bodies and minds
- Space, place and belonging
- Inequalities and inclusion
- Childhood in the past, present and future
Essential reading for students on childhood and youth and education courses, Exploring Childhood and Youth is an important resource for practitioners working with children and young people, and for parents, communities and legislators who have influence over children’s and young people’s lives.
Chapter 1 Childhood identities and materiality
Victoria Cooper
Chapter 2 Becoming a child
Heather Montgomery
Chapter 3 Children and young people negotiating gender in context
Naomi Holford
Chapter 4 Food, eating and identities
Mimi Tatlow-Golden
Chapter 5 Everyday violence and everyday places
Jiniya Afroze
Chapter 6 Getting ready for school: who’s playing?
Karen Douthwaite
Chapter 7 Children and young people’s experiences of school: do we listen hard enough?
Lucinda Kerawalla
Chapter 8 Poverty, place and learning
Gavin Williams
Chapter 9 Inequalities in access to further and higher education
Fiona Reeve
Chapter 10 Normal was for normal days: building our practice upon the exploration of people’s preferences
Jonathan Rix
Chapter 11 Children, young people and voluntourism
Heather Montgomery
Chapter 12 Eugenics and the lives of disabled children
Kieron Sheehy
Chapter 13 Psychiatrising children
Brenda LeFrançois
Chapter 14 Children in the digital world: privacy and autonomy in surveilled digital lives
Mimi Tatlow-Golden
Chapter 15 Changing environments
Peter Kraftl
Biography
Victoria Cooper is Senior Lecturer in Childhood and Youth Studies at The Open University, UK and is former Co-Director of the Children’s Research Centre. She is particularly interested in issues of identity, research methods, and children and young people's experiences living with a family health crisis.
Naomi Holford is Lecturer in Childhood and Youth Studies at The Open University, UK, and specialises in the area of gender, sexuality and class in childhood and youth.
'Exploring Childhood and Youth adds to a growing list of overview texts designed for students of childhood and youth studies. In their short introduction, editors Victoria Cooper and Naomi Holford frame the collection as an overview of core and emerging ideas relating to the study of childhood and youth, providing critical reflections on what they suggest is “now a firmly established academic field” (p. 1)... A core strength of the collection is the depth of engagement with disability across multiple chapters and from diverse perspectives.' - Kate Cairns, Teachers College Record
