Children’s Citizenships

Abstract

During the 1970s and 1980s, sociological studies in Italy were exclusively concerned with ‘adolescence’ as distinct from the general category of ‘childhood’. In the 1990s, local administrations and national government promoted new opportunities for children’s participation in society, and sociologists began to analyse the various aspects of this participation. Since the 1990s, sociological research has included the legal and political bases of children’s citizenship and rights, forms of interaction promoting children’s participation, ways of including children in mainstream cultural tendencies, children’s observations of their social context, intercultural situations involving children, deviance and the labelling of children. The expansion of childhood sociology, however, has been slow, and the political impulse which supported children’s participation has partially evaporated. Childhood sociology in Italy remains marginal in scientific research and university teaching. Its future depends partly on renewed political commitment to promoting children’s participation; however, its main obstacle is the lukewarm interest within the sociological community.