The Agency of Children
The Agency of Children
The idea of children's agency is central to the growing field of childhood studies. In this book David Oswell argues for new understandings of children's agency. He traces the transformation of children and childhood across the nineteenth, twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and explores the dramatic changes in recent years to children's everyday lives as a consequence of new networked, mobile technologies and new forms of globalisation. The author reviews existing theories of children's agency as well as providing the theoretical tools for thinking of children's agency as spatially, temporally and materially complex. With this in mind, he surveys the main issues in childhood studies, with chapters covering family, schooling, crime, health, consumer culture, work and human rights. This is a comprehensive text intended for students and academic researchers across the humanities and social sciences interested in the study of children and childhood.
- Presents a new theoretical framework for thinking about children's agency
- Provides a comprehensive overview of the field of the sociology of childhood and a synthesis of existing theories of children's agency
- Includes a range of ideas and material at the forefront of the field
Reviews & endorsements
"This book offers a lucid and authoritative reconceptualisation of agency and probes crucial issues surrounding contemporary childhood and childhood studies. A text to think with – and act on." -Kirsten Drotner Institute of Cultural Sciences, University of Southern Denmark
"An insightful and very welcome addition to the field, The Agency of Children offers a fresh and distinctive approach to childhood studies. Harmonising past and present with his own clear voice, Oswell develops an original commentary that is a must-read for all who seek to understand children and childhood in contemporary times." Mary Jane Kehily, Professor of Gender and Education, The Open University, UK
"A hugely significant reworking of the concept of agency with respect to children and childhood. Essential reading for all involved in the field." -Valerie Walkerdine Distinguished Research Professor, Cardiff University
Product details
February 2013Paperback
9780521604703
312 pages
229 × 151 × 14 mm
0.5kg
2 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Part I. Introduction:
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Agency after Ariès: sentiments, natures and spaces
- Part II. Social Theories of Children and Childhood:
- 3. Modern social theories: agency and structure
- 4. Partial and situated agency
- 5. Subjectivity, experience and post-social assemblages
- Part III. Spaces of Experience, Experimentation and Power:
- 6. Family and household
- 7. School and education
- 8. Crime and criminality
- 9. Health and medicine
- 10. Play and consumer culture
- 11. Political economies of labour
- 12. Rights and political participation
- Part IV. Conclusions:
- 13. Conclusions.
