Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood: New Perspectives in Childhood Studies

396 Pages·2016·2.65 MB·English

by  Florian Esser

Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood
By regarding children as actors and conducting empirical research on children’s
agency, Childhood Studies have gained significant influence on a wide range of
different academic disciplines. This has made agency one of the key concepts of
Childhood Studies, with articles on the subject featured in handbooks and
encyclopaedias.
Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood is the first collection devoted to the
central concept of agency in Childhood Studies. With contributions from experts
in the field, the chapters cover theoretical, practical, historical, transnational and
institutional dimensions of agency, rekindling discussion and introducing
fundamental and contemporary sociological perspectives to the field of research.
Particular attention is paid to connecting agency in the social sciences with
Childhood Studies, considering both the theoretical foundations and the practice
of research into agency. Empirical case studies are also explored, which focus
upon child protection, schools and childcare at a variety of institutions
worldwide.
This book is an essential reference for students and scholars of Childhood
Studies, and is also relevant to Sociology, Social Work, Education, Early
Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Geography.
Florian Esser is a lecturer in the Department of Social Pedagogy and
Organisation Studies at the University of Hildesheim, Germany.
Meike S. Baader is Professor for General Educational Science at the University
of Hildesheim, Germany.
Tanja Betz is Professor for Childhood Studies and Elementary and Primary
Education in the Department of Educational Sciences at Goethe University
Frankfurt, Germany.
Beatrice Hungerland is Professor of Childhood Studies at the Magdeburg-
Stendal University of Applied Sciences, Germany.
Routledge Research in Education
For a complete list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com.
144 Education, Leadership and Islam
Theories, discourses and practices from an Islamic perspective
Saeeda Shah 145 English Language Teacher Education in Chile
A cultural historical activity theory perspective
Malba Barahona 146 Navigating Model Minority Stereotypes
Asian Indian Youth in South Asian Diaspora
Rupam Saran 147 Evidence-based Practice in Education
Functions of evidence and causal presuppositions
Tone Kvernbekk 148 A New Vision of Liberal Education
The good of the unexamined life
Alistair Miller 149 Transatlantic Reflections on the Practice-Based PhD
in Fine Art Jessica B. Schwarzenbach and Paul M. W. Hackett
150 Drama and Social Justice
Theory, research and practice in international contexts
Edited by Kelly Freebody and Michael Finneran 151 Education, Identity
and Women Religious, 1800-1950
Convents, classrooms and colleges
Edited by Deirdre Raftery and Elizabeth Smyth 152 School Health
Education in Changing Times
Curriculum, pedagogies and partnerships
Deana Leahy, Lisette Burrows, Louise McCuaig, Jan Wright and Dawn
Penney 153 Progressive Sexuality Education
The Conceits of Secularism
Mary Lou Rasmussen
154 Collaboration and the Future of Education
Preserving the Right to Think and Teach Historically
Gordon Andrews, Warren J. Wilson, and James Cousins 155 Theorizing
Pedagogical Interaction Insights from Conversation Analysis
Hansun Zhang Waring 156 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Distance
Teaching Connected Classrooms in Theory and Practice
Alan Blackstock and Nathan Straight 156 How Arts Education Makes a
Difference
Research examining successful classroom practice and pedagogy
Edited by Josephine Fleming, Robyn Gibson and Michael Anderson
157 Populism, Media and Education
Challenging discrimination in contemporary digital societies
Edited by Maria Ranieri 158 Imagination for Inclusion
Diverse contexts of educational practice
Edited by Derek Bland 159 Youth Voices, Public Spaces, and Civic
Engagement Edited by Stuart Greene, Kevin J. Burke, and Maria K.
McKenna 160 Spirituality in Education in a Global, Pluralised World
Marian de Souza
161 Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood
New perspectives in Childhood Studies
Edited by Florian Esser, Meike Baader, Tanja Betz and Beatrice
Hungerland 162 Technology-Enhanced Language Learning for
Specialized Domains Practical applications and mobility
Edited by Elena Martín Monje, Izaskun Elorza and Blanca García Riaza
163 American Indian Workforce Education
Trends and Issues
Edited by Carsten Schmidtke
164 African American English and the Achievement Gap The Role of
Dialectal Code-switching
Holly K. Craig 165 Intersections of Formal and Informal Science
Edited by Lucy Avraamidou & Wolff-Michael Roth
166 Women Education Scholars and their Children’s Schooling Edited by
Kimberly A. Scott and Allison Henward
167 The Improvised Curriculum
Negotiating Risky Literacies in Cautious Schools
Michael Corbett, Ann Vibert, Mary Green with Jennifer Rowe
Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood
New perspectives in Childhood Studies
Edited by Florian Esser, Meike S. Baader, Tanja Betz and
Beatrice Hungerland
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Florian Esser, Meike S. Baader, Tanja Betz and Beatrice Hungerland
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
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only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Names: Esser, Florian, editor.
Title: Reconceptualising agency and childhood : new perspectives in childhood studies / edited by Floran
Esser, Meike S. Baader, Tanja Betz, and Beatrice Hungerland.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015036971| ISBN 9781138854192 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315722245 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Children—Study and teaching. | Children—Social conditions. | Child psychology. |
Children—Services for.
Classification: LCC HQ767.85 .R435 2016 | DDC 305.23—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015036971
ISBN: 978-1-13885419-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-31572224-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
by diacriTech, Chennai
Contents
Notes on contributors
Reconceptualising agency and childhood: an introduction
FLORIAN ESSER, MEIKE S. BAADER, TANJA BETZ AND BEATRICE HUNGERLAND
SECTION I
Theoretical perspectives
1 Re-aligning children’s agency and re-socialising children in Childhood
Studies
DAVID OSWELL
2 Children as participants in practices: the challenges of practice theories to an
actor-centred sociology of childhood
SABINE BOLLIG AND HELGA KELLE
3 Neither “thick” nor “thin”: reconceptualising agency and childhood
relationally
FLORIAN ESSER
4 Children’s agency: contributions from feminist and ethic of care theories to
sociology of childhood
ANNE WIHSTUTZ
5 Meanings of children’s agency: when and where does agency begin and end?
PRISCILLA ALDERSON AND TAMAKI YOSHIDA
6 Extending agency: the merit of relational approaches for Childhood Studies
EBERHARD RAITHELHUBER
SECTION II
Children as actors in research
7 Troubling children’s voices in research
SPYROS SPYROU
8 Playing with socially constructed identity positions: accessing and
reconstructing children’s perspectives and positions through ethnographic
fieldwork and creative workshops
HANNE WARMING
SECTION III
Agency in historical perspective
9 Tracing and contextualising childhood agency and generational order from
historical and systematic perspectives
MEIKE S. BAADER
10 Martha Muchow’s research on children’s life space: a classic study on
childhood in the light of the present
GÜNTER MEY
11 “Children need boundaries”: concepts of children’s agency in German
parents’ guidebooks since 1950
BEATRICE HUNGERLAND
SECTION IV
Transnational and majority world perspectives of agency
12 Exploring children’s agency across majority and minority world contexts
SAMANTHA PUNCH
13 Do the “mollycoddled” act? Children, agency and disciplinary entanglements
in India
HIA SEN
14 Context matters! On non-working children’s citizenship in South Indian
children’s rights initiatives as a practice
LAURA B. KAYSER
SECTION V
Agency in institutions of childhood
15 Agency: educators’ imaginations as triggered by photographs of pre-school
children
CLAUDIA DREKE
16 Agency and the conceptualisation of minors in child protection case files
TIMO ACKERMANN AND PIERRINE ROBIN
17 Children as social actors and addressees? Reflections on the constitution of
actors and (student) subjects in elementary school peer cultures
TORSTEN ECKERMANN AND FRIEDERIKE
HEINZEL
18 Accounting for children’s agency in research on educational inequality: the
influence of children’s own practices on their academic habitus in elementary
school
FREDERICK DE MOLL AND TANJA BETZ