Childhood and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Childhood

By Michael Wyness Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan , 2006 ISBN 0333946499 , 268 pp, £18.99 (pb) Anyone new to the sociology of childhood should be encouraged to read this thought-provoking book that pulls together recent debates surrounding children, childhood, agency, care and control. It is organised around four key parts, beginning with childhood and theory. The first of three chapters in this section both celebrates and critiques social constructionism as a theoretical approach in the sociology of childhood. The second chapter explores the generational differences between the structural categories of child and adult, emphasising that children are an ever-present but often ‘invisible’ social group. Wyness compares and contrasts the minority group positioning of children with that of women, highlighting important similarities and contrasts with feminist debates. While other authors have linked childhood studies to feminism, few have attempted to bridge childhood and Marxism, which he does in an interesting way. The final chapter of this first part of the book tackles recent sociological debates including risk, individualisation, globalisation and globalism, highlighting the way that childhood has been absent from these discussions. The scope of the book is impressive, as Wyness enables us to see how the sociology of childhood can be clearly located within these wider sociological theories and concepts. Part II of the book explores the notion of childhood as a social problem, particularly in relation to street children, cyber children, child soldiers, child carers, child abuse and child crime. The author's perceptive treatment of these childhoods shows how they challenge the late modern, western construction of childhood by demonstrating children's competencies, responsibilities, resilience and agency, despite their constrained environments. In the third part of the book, we are taken back to more traditional paradigms by considering the relevance of socialisation theory and the developmental approach to understanding childhood. This section is broadly concerned with the ways in which children and childhood are regulated, so the second chapter here shows how mass compulsory schooling in minority world contexts reinforces the need to control children rather than respect them as competent beings or encourage their self-determination. Although a key theme throughout the book is the relationship between children, childhood and agency, the final part of Childhood and Society more explicitly explores this notion of children as social agents. The three chapters in this section address children's cultures, researching with children and children's rights. One of the central themes of the book is the exploration of the tension between adult-generated conceptions of childhood and the diversity of children's practices. We see, through a range of case studies, that children are ‘now ambiguously placed as structurally marginal and situationally competent’ (p. 234). On the one hand, there are political, social, economic and cultural restrictions which shape our understandings of childhood and reflect children's marginal social status as a minority group. Yet on the other hand, there are numerous examples of children as competent and active co-constructors of their social world. Wyness reminds us that although sociologists now routinely view children as competent social actors, many policy-makers and child professionals still continue to hold on to the developmental approach to understanding childhood even though they are beginning to acknowledge the importance of giving children a voice and taking their views seriously. Throughout the book a range of images and discourses is highlighted in relation to different types of childhoods, such as the disordered child, the consumer child, the cyber child, the solitary child, the media-wise child, the political child, the domesticated child, the dangerous child, the knowing child and the street child. This emphasises the ways in which children can become labelled and understood in particular ways, but it would have been helpful if a word of caution reminded us that these discourses can unduly homogenise certain groups of children and that there are many different ways of being a street child or a disordered child or a cyber child, and so on. In fact, one of the strengths of the book is that Wyness provides nuanced accounts of key themes relating to children and childhood, where he discusses both the positive and negative aspects, as well as highlighting both children's and adults’ perspectives of these issues. For example, in relation to technology, we are shown the benefits of enabling wider choices for children's identity formation, knowledge-building, autonomy and status enhancement, but we are also encouraged to reflect on the negative impacts caused by the inequality of access to technology and parental fears over the way it can threaten their authority and weaken their control over their children's choices. Whilst the book has been carefully written, at times Wyness falls into the trap of discussing childhood in general terms when he should be emphasising that this is a minority world perspective of childhood. However, he does draw on several examples from majority world countries which clearly illustrate the cultural diversity of global childhoods, although a few more would have been welcome. A weakness of the book is that rural childhoods, birth order and disabled children are not specifically discussed, but it is difficult to provide a comprehensive overview of every aspect of childhood. What is exceptional about this book is that it brings the sociology of childhood alongside a broad range of recent sociological thinking. It is clearly written in an accessible style and will be an extremely useful text for undergraduates and postgraduates embarking on this topic for the first time. It is also a timely text for academics and researchers working in this field who wish to broaden and consolidate their understanding of childhood in relation to a range of recent sociological debates.