2. Childhood and Agency

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about the concept of agency within childhood studies, focusing in particular on: (i) the concept of 'agency' in sociology more generally, especially in relation to structure or structures; (ii) the emphasis within childhood studies on children as 'agential subjects', i.e. people with agency; (iii) the kind of agency that a child is thought to have – not simply basic desires such as "I want to move to the other side of the room", but reimagining the world, testing the 'structures' around them, etc.; (iv) the extent to which a child's perception of the world has a certain value because the child has not yet been submerged in the norms of the world that they are perceiving; (v) the extent to which it is even possible to be a pre-social social agent – is there a 'doer behind the deed', as Judith Butler puts it?

Course

In this course, Professor Karen Wells (Birkbeck, University of London) explores the sociology of childhood. In the first lecture, we think about the idea is childhood is socially constructed. In the second lecture, we consider the idea that children have agency. In the third lecture, we think about child rights and the emergence of a 'child rights regime'. Next, we think about the inequalities that shape childhood. In the fifth lecture, we think about different theories of identity emerging from psychology and childhood studies. In the sixth lecture, we turn to think about school and work as domains of childhood. In the seventh and final lecture, we think about the juvenile justice system.

Lecturer

Professor Karen Wells is Professor of Human Geography at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research is focused on childhood studies, particularly the formation of childhood and the impact of inequality on children’s lives. She is author of The Visual Cultures of Childhood (2020), Childhood Studies: Making Young Subjects (2017), and Childhood in Global Perspective (2014).