Los niños como sujetos sociales: El aporte de los Nuevos Estudios Sociales de la infancia y el Análisis Crítico del Discurso

Abstract

Contrary to popular belief, children have a capacity to interpret their environment subtlety and to take a critical stand about life and work styles that are present in current Chilean society. In conceptual terms, this research shows that childhood may be understood from perspectives that differ from psycho-evolutionary models, unveiling the child as a complex subject that portrays him/herself as the result but also as an agent of current societies. This research involved the analysis of a diversity of theoretical fields that have influenced relevant social research, such as the new social studies of childhood and their brief development in Latin America, as well as the subjective stand of the child in these fields. From this logic, Critical Discourse Analysis appears to be a useful theoretical tool to conduct research work about childhood, since it argues that the discourse of subordinates is invisible. We end with a few brief precisions about the relationship between the child and the adult world, which give an account of the paradoxes and contradictions that these perspectives toss over the traditional relationship, which takes for granted that the child is a subordinate.