Engaging with Structure

Abstract

Part 1 of the framework suggests that an engagement with structure provides a starting point from which to consider individual action. Th is chapter examines the backdrop that the social agent comes to engage with as part of negotiating interactions. It is a backdrop that refl ects the extent to which understandings around the child are based on constructed images which have been shaped by a range of social factors. Our intial focus, therefore is on the socially constructed nature of childhoods, with specifi c reference to the moral images of the child that this process creates.