Concerns with the global burdens of health, environmental sustainability, economic security and management of risks through the welfare state have been strongly linked with population growth and ageing. Yet, what is often overlooked or latent in these discussions are the intergenerational transfers of risks and opportunities between adulthood, childhood and youth, and the consequences of these transfers for current and future generations.
This course examines these issues by canvassing key sociological approaches to childhood and youth in modern societies, with a focus on the professional implications of these issues. The course introduces students to a range of contemporary social theories about childhood and youth; the role that intergenerational relations play in understanding how societies function; critically exploring social constructions of childhood and youth in contemporary societies and considering the implications these have for a range of social policies, social problems, services and professional practices for children, youth and families.
This course also provides students with the opportunity to develop an understanding of the varied experiences of children and young people in different parts of the world and how processes of globalisation affect the conditions in which children and young people experience their ‘childhood’ and ‘youth’. In doing so, the course demonstrates how theories on childhood and youth provide important insights into how societies function, and that questions central to theories of childhood and youth are also central to social theory more generally.
Topics to be included are theories of childhood, youth and society; the historical development of childhood and youth; childhoods and globalisation; childhood, youth, social policy and the state; the social functions of education; digital childhoods; and childhood, youth and professional practice.
- Enseignant·e: Tobia Fattore