SOCIOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD

Content

Objective

This course offers a critical introduction to the sociology of childhood, examining its historical development and the social construction of childhood. Questioning traditional adult-centric perspectives, it positions children as active social agents and rights-holders. Students explore how childhood is negotiated across contemporary domains such as digital environments, education and family structures, while developing the ethical and methodological foundations necessary for conducting research with children.

Course Content

The course examines childhood as a historically and culturally constructed social category rather than a simple stage of development. The first part traces the historical transformation of childhood, the emergence of the sociology of childhood as a constituted field, and the contemporary debates running through it, in particular the discussion of the child as being and as becoming, and the question of children’s agency. Two sessions are devoted to the methodological and ethical conditions of research conducted with children and prepare the group fieldwork carried out during the semester. The second part addresses four contexts in which the place granted to children is negotiated today: family, digitalization, education and citizenship. The semester closes with oral presentations of the fieldwork and a collective review.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

1.Explain the transition of the social construction of childhood from traditional approaches to contemporary paradigms.
2.Evaluate contemporary frameworks of childhood critically by centering children as active social agents.
3.Analyze how childhood is transformed within modern contexts such as digital environments, educational systems, and family structures.
4.Apply co-creation methods and ethical principles used in sociological research with children during the workshop and the fieldwork.

Teaching and Learning Methods

Lecture, assigned readings and class discussion, sociological analysis, oral presentations.

References

Cunningham, Hugh. 1998. « Histories of Childhood ». The American Historical Review 103 (4) : 1195–1208. https://doi.org/10.2307/2651207
Garnier, Pascale. 2015. « L’“agency” des enfants. Projet scientifique et politique des “childhood studies” ». Éducation et sociétés 2 (36) : 159–173.
James, Allison, et Alan Prout. 1997. « A New Paradigm for the Sociology of Childhood ? Provenance, Promise and Problems ». In Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood : Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood, dir. Alan Prout et Allison James, pp. 7–32. Londres : Falmer Press.
Lareau, Annette. 2003. Unequal Childhoods : Class, Race, and Family Life, pp. 1–32. Berkeley : University of California Press.
Larkins, Cath. 2014. « Enacting Children’s Citizenship : Developing Understandings of How Children Enact Themselves as Citizens through Actions and Acts of Citizenship ». Childhood 21 (1) : 7–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568213481815
Livingstone, Sonia, et Kristina R. Sylwander. 2025. « There Is No Right Age ! The Search for Age-appropriate Ways to Support Children’s Digital Lives and Rights ». Journal of Children and Media 19 (1) : 6–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2024.2435015
Livingstone, Sonia, et Amanda Third. 2017. « Children and Young People’s Rights in the Digital Age : An Emerging Agenda ». New Media & Society 19 (5) : 657–670.
Postman, Neil. 1985. « The Disappearance of Childhood ». Childhood Education 61 (4) : 286–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.1985.10520201
Punch, Samantha. 2002. « Research with Children : The Same or Different from Research with Adults ? » Childhood 9 (3) : 321–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568202009003005
Simon, Alice. 2020. « Are Children Interviewees Just Like Any Others ? » Bulletin de méthodologie sociologique 146 (1) : 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0759106320908223
Sirota, Régine. 2006. « Petit objet insolite ou champ constitué, la sociologie de l’enfance est-elle encore dans les choux ? » In Éléments pour une sociologie de l’enfance, dir. Régine Sirota. Rennes : Presses universitaires de Rennes.
Spyrou, Spyros. 2018. Disclosing Childhoods, pp. 15–52. Londres : Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Spyrou, Spyros, Rachel Rosen et Daniel Thomas Cook. 2018. « Introduction : Reimagining Childhood Studies. Connectivities… Relationalities… Linkages… ». In Reimagining Childhood Studies, dir. Spyros Spyrou, Rachel Rosen et Daniel Thomas Cook, pp. 1–20. Royaume-Uni : Bloomsbury Academic.
Uprichard, Emma. 2008. « Children as “Being and Becomings” : Children, Childhood and Temporality ». Children & Society 22 (4) : 303–313.
Wall, John. 2021. Give Children the Vote : On Democratizing Democracy, pp. 1–10. Londres et New York : Bloomsbury Academic.
Yılmaz, Ayşe. 2023a. « An Ethnographic Fieldwork : The Role of School Shows in the Reproduction of Gender Inequalities in Turkey ». Children & Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12822
Yılmaz, Ayşe. 2023b. « School Shows Staged in Public Primary Schools in Turkey : Tools in the Making of Future Citizens ». Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée 2 (154), article 154. https://doi.org/10.4000/remmm.20144

Weekly Contents

Assessment System

Relation of Proficiency

ECTS