It is a great pleasure to introduce this online series entitled ‘Children in Theory: Theoretical Methods and Approaches to the Study of Childhood’. In the course of this series, our aim is to provide scholars at all levels with an opportunity to explore how key theoretical methods and approaches can be brought to bear on research on children and childhood.
We start this series with some introductory reflections by David Archard, Emeritus Professor at Queens University Belfast, and John Wall, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Childism Institute at Rutgers University. They will be in conversation with Deborah Lawson, PhD student at the European Children’s Rights Unit within the University of Liverpool.
Three questions are addressed in this talk:
- What do you make of the current landscape of theoretical research on childhood (or current theories which are used to study childhood)?
- What do you think the role is for theory in childhood research?
- How do you think theoretical work in the field of childhood research can contribute to or help advance broader theoretical work that isn’t related to childhood?
Further References and Sources
- David Archard. Rights and Childhood, 3rdedition (London: Routledge, 2015).
- David Archard and Colin Macleod (eds.) The Moral and Political Status of Children (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
- Alexander Bagattini and Colin Macleod (eds.) The Nature of Children's Well-Being (Dordrecht: Springer 2015).
- Sarada Balagopalan, John Wall, and Karen Wells (eds.) Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies (Bloomsbury, 2023).
- Anca Gheaus, Gideon Calder and Jurgen de Wispelaere (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children (London: Routledge, 2019).
- Rachel Rosen and Katherine Twamley (eds.) Feminism and the Politics of Childhood: Friends or Foes? (UCL Press, 2018).
- Spyros Spyrou, Rachel Rosen, and Daniel Thomas Cook (eds.) Reimagining Childhood Studies (Bloomsbury, 2018).
- John Wall, Ethics in Light of Childhood (Georgetown, 2010).
- Childism Institute, Rutgers University.
This project has been developed by members of the European Children’s Rights Unit with the support of the British Academy’s Newton International Fellowship award No. NIFBA19\190492KU. For more information on the series, please contact Nico Brando.