Sociology of the family#Sociology of childhood

History

After the sociology was concerned until the 1980s with children and childhood almost exclusively in terms of socialization, received in the past two or three decades a sociology of childhood at first mainly in the Scandinavian countries and the United States buoyancy and led to numerous studies and an intensive theoretical and highly interdisciplinary debate. Affinity was for the education of science to cultural studies and historiography. This sociological traditions have been processed, which in a first phase - and as far as it concerned the examination of the socialization theory - very critical failed and had parallels with the feminist engagement with sociological tradition and there took explicit bonds.

Current approaches

Currently two currents can be distinguished:

The child as a social actor

This first flow has roots among others in the sociology of youth and a strong ethnographic approach to social life. It focuses on the way in which children orient in society, their cultural achievements, the social worlds that they construct and in which they participate. The key word here means " children as social actors ." Children should always be seen as members of society and not only as future members and expectant, as ( according to the tenor childhood sociological criticism ) had happened to exclusively in previous decades in the perspectives of socialization research and developmental psychology.

Generational order

In the center of the second flow of social structure and social theory questions are for social justice and social order in a society that divides its members by age and membership in various aspects ( rights, obligations, economic participation, attributed needs, etc.) makes a clear distinction. These questions are bundled under the senior concept of " generational order." This is mentioned that the categorization of members of society according to age rather than unsuspecting image of natural differences is, but rather a social construction of such a " natural" truth and as such a relevant part of social order. This is followed by adding the view that this quasi - natural founded inequality is fundamentally linked with other dimensions of social inequality. Social change, economic change, social policies become central objects of investigation of childhood sociology. The analysis of these objects has sensitized to the attention of the generational dimension.

Childhood and mass media

The child is a significant economic factor, as proven by the areas of children's fashion, children's food, children's movies, children's games (video games for children) or of the children's toy graphic. It will also target the media in the form of children's programs, children's television, radio or the children of the children 's magazines. Increasingly, researchers are turning to the influence of mass media and advertising on children and empirically.