Societal position of childhood: the international project Childhood as a Social Phenomenon

Abstract

In this brief overview only a few points could be sketched. Other important issues have been the consequences for children of the break up of the family, such as di vorce and consensual unions; the legal position of children has been of interest, as it has also gained importance internationally in recent years through the new UN child convention. Generally, however, the importance of the project lies, we believe, in its efforts to bring structural, sociological and economic theories and methods to bear on childhood, while perceiving childhood as a social construction. It has been a central idea from the outset, that there was nothing mysterious about children that preven ted us from approaching childhood scientifically as any other social category is ap proached. This is, we believe, one way of taking children seriously.*