Understanding childhood - Martin Woodhead

Understanding Childhood is the first of four books which form part of The Open University course Childhood. Together they provide an undergraduate–level introduction to the interdisciplinary field of childhood and youth studies, and a framework for analyzing contemporary policy and practice in, for instance, education, health and social work. Childhood is now a global issue, forcing a reconsideration of conventional approaches to study. Childhood is also a very personal issue for each and every one of us – scholars, policy–makers, parents and children. The books encourage the reader's active involvement, especially through the use of activities. They include children's and parents' voices as well as academic discussion of childhood in diverse societies and points in history. Selected readings accompany the chapters to present additional perspecitve. Understanding Childhood: an interdisciplinary approach asks 'What is a child?' and introduces a range of perspectives within childhood and youth studies. Topics in this book include the history of beliefs about childhood, the growth of scientific approaches to studying children, the significance of gender, debates around children's rights and how far children are seen as innocent or knowing.The other titles in the series are: 2 Childhoods in Context 3 Children's Cultural Worlds 4 Changing Childhoods: local and global 'A landmark in bringing together the very latest research and thinking in this rapidly expanding area of social science. The underlying impetus for the series, and something which s threaded throughout, is the desire to forge a synthesis between what is "social", "cultural" and "biological/psychological" in the lives of children and thereby offer new direction for childhood studies.' Dr Allison James, Director of the Centre for the Social Study of Childhood, University of Hull, England ' Understanding Childhood works like a kaleidoscope, taking the reader into one way of seeing (for example, frameworks from child development), and then another (such as historical and cross–cultural perspectives on childhood). These different ways of seeing are brought into dialogue around compelling issues such as the age when childhood begins and ends; assertions about the universal rights of children; and conceptions of innocence.' Barrie Thorne, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies, University of California at Berkeley, USA. 'The book addresses appealingly difficult issues with an extraordinary grasp of complicated matters – it does not forget the effect of global forces on childhood and remembers to account for the particularities of individual children's local lives. The attractiveness of the book is enhanced by its being presented in a highly professional manner with many illustrations in colour – not for their own sake, but because they suport the text and thus increase the book's pedagogical value.' Professor Jens Qvortrop, Director, Norwegian Centre for Child Research, Trondheim, Norway