Understanding Childhood

Abstract

Exemplified by the philosophical writings of Aristotle and Plato, childhood has fascinated both public and academic discourses for generations through scientific and psychological fascinations at the turn of the last century to anthropological, sociological and geographical literature that more recently contributed to the social studies of childhood. Arguably, as a social construct, the concept of childhood is relatively new. ‘Childhood’ as an idea is embedded in ‘culture’, and children are participants (with varying degrees of agency) in many if not all of those relationships that are governed through cultural practice (Hendrick, 2011, p. 103). Contemporary academic discourse and current debates on childhood are framed around shifting social constructions of childhood, political ideologies and changing cultural agendas. Understanding the relationship between social change and constructions of childhood has often been through the conceptual lens framed by ‘structure’ and ‘agency ’, especially during the late twentieth century (Qvortrup, 2011). Furthermore, the unprecedented rapid social change associated with technologies (see Ólafsson et al., 2013a), especially mobile internet technologies, has arguably changed both the nature and expectations of childhood and children’s everyday experiences. In fact, how we understand ‘childhood’ or, indeed, ‘the child’ or ‘children’ is open to changing and often challenging ideas about what ‘childhood’ is or should be, what it means to be ‘a child’ and how children are viewed and treated in society.KeywordsMobile TechnologyEveryday ExperienceActor Network TheoryRisk SocietyCentury OnwardThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.