CHYS 2P38 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Pragmatics, Neoliberalism, Racialization

• School: Brock University
• Department: Child and Youth Studies
• Course: CHYS 2P38
• Professor: Thomas O' Neill

Document Summary

Wells, in recognizing the flaws in aries" argument, asserts that childhood as a distinct phase in the life cycle is universal. The protected, nurturing european (and american) childhood is a minority childhood. Childhood as a distinct phase" is structured (different from the notion that it is socially structured) Childhood is a biological structure in most cultures. Prout and james constructing and reconstructing childhood (1990) and theorizing childhood (1998) Children are and must be seen as active in the construction and determination of their own social lives, the lives around them and of the societies in which they live. Children are not just passive subjects of social structures and processes . This new" paradigm was a significant shift from what came before positivistic sociology and psychology that focused more on what they would (or would not) become, rather than what they were. A central argument was that children and youth are social agents.