Society and Social Changes through the Prism of Childhood

This book presents a new childhood studies research program; namely Childhood Prism Research and offers unique childhood research contributions to the wider scholarly field. Bringing together cutting-edge childhood studies scholars from various disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, feminism, anthropology, sociology and literature, the book demonstrates the rich potential of this program and offers an introduction to the childhood prism theoretical framework, as well as examples of childhood prism research.

Childhood prism research is underpinned by a distinct childhood studies approach that involves re-thinking the generational order perspective, and combining this with a relational ontology and a flat, non-adultist epistemology. The key assumption is that the study of children’s lives can offer not only insights into adults’ lives, and vice versa, but in some cases may even offer a privileged lens onto broader societal issues. The program embraces a number of seemingly oppositional positions in an ongoing debate within childhood studies and children’s geographies about how to reinvigorate theoretical thinking within these fields. Featuring leading childhood studies scholars from various disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, feminism, anthropology, sociology and literature, this book demonstrates the rich potential of the program and shows how researching children’s and young people’s lives using this approach holds great promise for significant theoretical development beyond the field of children’s geographies and childhood studies, as well as for empirical exploration of broader societal issues.

Society and Social Changes Through the Prism of Childhood will be a key resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Childhood Studies, Sociology, Human Geography, Social Sciences and Psychology. The chapters included in this book were originally published as a special issue of Children’s Geographies.

Hanne Warming is Professor of Sociology and Childhood, and Head of the Research Group ‘Social dynamics and change’ at Roskilde University, Denmark. She has published with great impact in the fields of childhood studies, as well as on policy and practice and has led sizeable research projects supported by a range of funding bodies. Her research has been price rewarded, and she is recorded in the European Expert Database of Outstanding Female Academics, “Academianet”. She is member of various advisory boards, includingfor the Childism Institute, Rutgers Camden, US. Her research fields of expertise include childhood and youth, social work, lived citizenship, social interaction, methodology and ethics in researching childhood research, as well as how theorizing and findings from childhood studies can inform more broad societal issues and change processes.