A Child in a World of Agents and Structures: On the Antinomies of Childhood Studies

The article analyzes conceptual positions and disagreements among theorists of interdisciplinary childhood studies — a field of knowledge that emerged on the basis of the new sociology of childhood. This movement positioned itself as a paradigm shift in the understanding of childhood, revealing it as a conceptually autonomous area where the active role of children in constructing their own experiences and social relationships should be recognized. The widespread acceptance of the language for talking about childhood proposed by the new paradigm has led to its jargonization, circulation of uncritically repeated banalities, and the lowering of the theoretical stakes. To counter this trend, researchers are trying to reconsider the approaches that dominate their field. At the same time, a careful examination of the theoretical postulates and conceptual apparatus of childhood studies researchers reveals a fundamental divergence that cannot be reduced to methodological or stylistic preferences. In the article, this discrepancy is examined as an antinomy between agency and structure, as well as between an absolutization of the subjective or objective poles of understanding. Using program statements as an example, it is shown how the agent approach in the context of childhood studies differs from the structural approach, as well as what epistemological and political consequences both positions imply. The stake on the agency and autonomy of childhood turns into a fetishization of the ever-elusive authenticity of a child’s voice; in its turn, the structural approach to childhood appears to be trivializing and dogmatic. At the end of the article, an assessment is provided of some attempts to get out of the described theoretical conundrum by the means, on the one hand, of the radical decentralization of childhood, and on the other hand, of a more nuanced description of the interactions between children and social structures.

1. Adorno T. (2010) Introduction to Sociology, Moscow: Praksis. — in Russ.

2. Ariès P. (1999) The Child and Family Life in the Old Regime, Ekaterinburg: Izd-vo Ural’skogo universiteta.— in Russ.

3. Bardina S. M. (2019) “Children, fools, and madmen”: Thomas Hobbes and the Problems of the Sociology of Childhood. Sociology of Power, 31 (1): 14–29.— in Russ.

4. deMause L. (2000) Psychohistory, Rostov-on-Don: Feniks.— in Russ.

5. Dudenkova I. (2014) “Children’s Question” in Sociology: Between a Normativity and an Autonomy. Sociology of Power, (3): 47–59.— in Russ.

6. Kozlovskaya A., Kozlova A. (2020) Children’s Agency as a Theoretical Problem and a Practical Concern (an Anthropological Remark). Anthropological Forum, (45): 11–25. — in Russ.

7. Mayorova-Shcheglova S., Kolosova E. (2018) Children and Childhood as Objects of Sociological Research. Sociological Research, (3): 62–69. — in Russ.

8. Mayorova-Shcheglova S. (ed.) (2018) Childhood of the XXI century: a Socio-Humanitarian Thesaurus, Moscow: Izd-vo ROS. — in Russ.

9. Nikitina-den Besten O. (2009) What’s new in the New Social Studies of Childhood? INTER: Interaction, Interview, Interpretation, (5): 7–24 — in Russ.

10. RousseauJ.-J. (1981) Emile, or On Education. Rousseau J.-J. Pedagogical works: In 2 vol. Vol. 1. Moscow: Pedagogika.

11. Forum: Searching for Children’s Agency. Anthropological Forum, (45): 11–25. — in 47 Russ.

12. Filipova A., Husnutdinova M. (2022) And Where is the Child? Comprehensive Child Studies, 4 (3): 203–209.— in Russ.

13. Foucault M. (1999) Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison, Moscow.: Ad Marginem.— in Russ.

14. Schelling F. W. J. (1987) Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism. Works in 2 vol.: Vol. 1. Moscow: Mysl’. — in Russ.

15. Alanen L., Mayall B. (2001) Conceptualizing Child-Adult Relations, London, New York: Routledge.

16. Alanen L. (2017) Childhood Studies and the Challenge of Ontology. Childhood, 24 (2): 147–150.

17. Alderson P. (2016a) The Philosophy of Critical Realism and Childhood Studies. Global Studies of Childhood, 6 (2): 199–210.

18. Alderson P. (2016b) The Politics of Childhoods Real and Imagined: Practical Application of Critical Realism and Childhood Studies, London, New York: Routledge.

19. Andal A. G. (2021) The state of journals on children and childhood studies: Insights and challenges from a citation analysis. Childhood, 28 (3): 444–458.

20. Canosa A., Graham A. (2020) Tracing the contribution of childhood studies: Maintaining momentum while navigating tensions. Childhood, 27 (1): 25–47.

21. Corsaro W. A. (1992) Interpretive Reproduction in Children’s Peer Cultures. Social Psychology Quarterly, 55 (2): 160–177.

22. Corsaro W. A. (2015) The Sociology of Childhood. Fourth edition, London: SAGE.

23. Holmberg L. (2018) The future of childhood studies? Reconstructing childhood with ideological dilemmas and metaphorical expressions. Childhood, 25 (2): 158–172. James A. (2007) Giving Voice to Children’s Voices: Practices and Problems, Pitfalls and Potentials. American Anthropologist, 109 (2): 261–272.

24. James Al., James Ad. (2012) Key Concepts in Childhood Studies, London: SAGE.

25. Jenks C. (2005) Childhood. 2nd ed., New York: Routledge.

26. Kehily M. J. (2009) An Introduction to Childhood Studies. Second Edition, Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.

27. Kennedy D. (2000) The Roots of Child Study: Philosophy, History, and Religion. Teachers College Record, 102, (3): 514–538.

28. Lancy D. (2012) Unmasking Children’s Agency, AnthropoChildren, 1 (2): 1–20.

29. Peters M. A., Johansson J. (2012) Historizing Subjectivity in Childhood Studies. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations, (11): 42–61.

30. Prout A. (2004) The Future of Childhood. Towards the Interdisciplinary Study of Children. London, New York: Routledge.

31. Prout A., James A. (eds.) (1997) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood, London: Farmer Press/Taylor & Francis.

32. Qvortrup J. (ed.) (1994) Childhood Matters, Aldershot: Avebury.

33. Qvortrup J., Brown Rosier K., Kinney D. A. (eds) (2009a) Structural, Historical, and Comparative Perspectives (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Vol. 12), Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

34. Qvotrup J. (Ed.) (1987) The Sociology of Childhood. International Journal of Sociology, 17 (3).

35. Smith C., Greene S. (2014) Key thinkers in childhood studies, Bristol: Policy Press. Spirou S. (2018) Disclosing Childhoods. Research and Knowledge Production for a Critical Childhood Studies, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

36. Tisdall E. K. M., Punch S. (2012) Not So ‘New’? Looking Critically at Childhood Studies. Children’s Geographies, 10 (3): 249–264.

37. Valentine G. (2003) Boundary Crossings: Transitions from Childhood to Adulthood. Children’s Geographies,1 (1):37–52.

38. Woodhead M., Montgomery H. (eds) (2003) Understanding Childhood: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Chichester: Wiley/The Open University.