Afterword: Towards a Child-Centred Perspective on Socialisation

Abstract

Writing this book represents, rather fittingly perhaps, a personal journey. It reflects the many years I have dwelt in the sociology and anthropology of childhood, trying to see what the world looks like from children’s own perspectives. From the very early developments in childhood studies when it was still novel to think about children as social actors and as people who have agency to do things (James and Prout 1997a), I have witnessed the debates progress to include more sophisticated discussions about the ways in which childhood is constituted in society, as discourse and through policy (Castaneda 2002; Parton 2006). Childhood studies has also moved from a focus on predominantly euro-centric issues to include those pertaining to children across the globe (Montgomery 2009; Wells 2009; Twum-Danso Imoh and Ame 2012). The study of children and childhood has also made great strides methodologically, in getting children’s voices and perspectives heard in matters that concern them (Fraser et al. 2004; Christensen and James 2008). In addition, children themselves are now also sometimes researchers into questions pertinent to their own lives, rather than only participating as the subjects of research in relation to the research issues of interest to adults (Kellet 2005).