Childhood studies and research challenges: Estrangement and interdependence, complexity and interdisciplinarity

Abstract

Considering children as historical subjects of rights, social actors, producers of culture is result of a social construction, based on research carried out by the field of sociology of childhood. The recognition that children construct culture is based on studies developed mainly in the 1990s, based on their historical, cultural and social dynamics (QVORTRUP; 2002). Childhood studies have advocated that childhood might be recognized as a specific group that produces and reproduces social life, that is, that children are historical and social beings that establish relations with other children and with adults, as people who participate in society, even if in a limited way, and are influenced by political, economic, cultural and technological events, among others. This conception, however, is coexisting with other paradigms, such as paternalism, or with conceptions that weaken the condition of child and maintain the idea of passivity and, therefore, of subordination to the power of adults. Childhood, however, cannot be addressed only by what adult institutions expect, but recognized as a specific group that produces and reproduces social life. Researching childhood thus means dealing with complex relationships and content, which can both focus on the interdependence between children and adults, as well as evidence of the power relations established in generational relationships. Recognizing that is adult people who study childhood, research them means not ignoring that their actions come from the same multiplicity of factors present in social relations in general. Moreover, admitting that economic and political forces interfere with their daily lives, at the same time as they establish boundaries between different groups of boys and girls, are the challenges and defines interdisciplinary research paths.