Theorising Childhood: Citizenship, Rights and Participation

This edited collection draws on the work of a number of leading scholars in the sociology of childhood. A focus on children’s citizenship, participation and rights (has had a relatively long history but how these are theorised has only occasionally been pulled together in one volume. These are linked to issues that are of concern to all sociologists. Namely, tensions between pragmatism and grand theory; revisiting the agency/structure debates in the light of children; the challenging of binary thought so prevalent in studies around `generations’ and other aspects of sociology; the manifestation of power in time and space; the application of theories into the `real’ world through NGOs, practitioners, policy makers, politicians and empirical research. The collection will be of interest to a wide body of people working across a number of disciplines in childhood studies, including sociology, politics and social policy. It will be of interest to academics, students, policy makers and practitioners interested in the citizenship, rights and participation of children.