Studies in Modern Childhood

JENS QVORTRUP is Professor of Sociology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. For more than 20 years he has been active in establishing social studies of childhood as an academic field, both as Director of the path breaking study 'Childhood as a Social Phenomenon' and as founding president of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on the Sociology of Childhood. He is a co-editor of the journal Childhood.

In this timely study, high profile researchers contribute to the burgeoning field of the social studies of childhood with original and often surprising perspectives and approaches.In this timely study, high profile researchers contribute to the burgeoning field of the social studies of childhood with original and often surprising perspectives and approaches. They demonstrate that far from being esoteric or negligible, childhood is part and parcel of the social fabric in both poor and affluent countries. With chapters on children's agency in small worlds and childhood's placement in large scale relationships, the book shows not only the variety of childhood(s), but also suggests that much is common in a generational context.