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DOI: 10.1177/0907568213513361
2014 21: 3 Childhood
Leena Alanen
Theorizing childhood
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Childhood
2014, Vol. 21(1) 3 6
The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/0907568213513361
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Theorizing childhood
In the report on the state of the art in childhood sociology in 10 countries published in the
journal of the International Sociological Association (Current Sociology 58(2)) Jo
Moran-Ellis finds some important creative tensions at present in the field of childhood
sociology. Her observations concern specifically the UK, but they most surely have a
much wider bearing. One of these tensions and challenges concerns the position of
childhood sociology in the academic world. To what extent, she asks, is the sociology of
childhood part of mainstream knowledge and understandings about the social world? Or
is it a subject which is popular with students but at risk of being marginal to the main
project and concerns of sociology (Moran-Ellis, 2010: 197)? In an overview of the situ-
ation in Finland in the same publication Harriet Strandell finds a similar situation, and
notes that interestingly the demand for sociological concepts and approaches to children
and childhood seems much greater in disciplines other than sociology, particularly in
disciplines that educate professionals to work with children (early childhood education,
social work), whereas in sociology childhood continues to remain a fairly narrow
research area, frequently conceived of as a specific field of study far from current socio-
logical concerns. This state of affairs clearly calls for work to be done in order to prop-
erly anchor the study of childhood in sociology. The salience of such work is obvious: it
surely is a key to a more comprehensive understanding of society at large (Strandell,
2010: 178179).
Similar comments on the state of childhood sociology in its relation to general, main-
stream sociology are heard across many more countries as well. This reasserts the strong
belief among childhood sociologists that was expressed in an editorial introduction to an
early issue of this journal: without theorizing childhood there can be no adequate account
of the social (Childhood 4(3): 261). Across the years, such a conviction has provided
some of the basic motivation for many sociologists in their work to construct a sociology
of childhood and also has set for us a long-term agenda. Sociology the discipline that
from its very birth has been the science of the social surely remains an incomplete
discipline as long as in its knowledge it is missing the childhood piece of the social
mosaic. A timely question to ask ourselves is, in Jan Kampmans (2003) wording, how
can we move childhood sociology forward from being a marginalized provocateur
within sociology to a recognized supplier of sociological knowledge?
Currently, and disappointedly, it is clear that a full recognition of childhoods place in
sociology has yet to come. Childhood sociology has found very little resonance in socio-
logical theory or general sociological analysis and the default position of most social and
political theory is either to discard children entirely or to regard them only as adults in
waiting (e.g. Bhler-Niederberger, 2010: 155156; Thomas, 2012; see also Qvortrup,
513361CHD21110.1177/0907568213513361ChildhoodEditorial
research-article2013
Editorial
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4 Childhood 21(1)
2003). This became (again) acutely evident to the childhood sociologists who in the
conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA) in Geneva (2011) were lis-
tening to the plenary talks in the conferences opening session. One of the messages
delivered to conference participants was the firm view of childhood as a preparatory
stage for adulthood, that is, the view that was dominant in the pre-1990s and evidently
still dominates in general sociology. Absent was an acknowledgement of the rich and
multifaceted empirical research on children and childhood of the recent decades, of the
discoveries made on the diversity of childrens life-worlds and their interdependencies
with social, economic and cultural structures, of childrens active engagement in the
social, economic and cultural production, distribution and consumption of their societies,
of the revisionings of long prevalent public images of children as innocents, and so on.
And this in spite of the existence of an active childhood research network within the ESA
itself!
The bafflement that such an announcement aroused among network members led to
discussions during the conference on what would need to be done in order to at least
update the prevalent understanding of childhood among the sociological community. If
we take the ultimate aim of doing childhood sociology to be the full incorporation of
childhood into the body of the sociological discipline, it is not sufficient that we remain
speaking with our colleagues within the childhood studies community; we obviously
need also to speak back to, and within, the mainstream. A strong investment in theorizing
childhood was felt to be one necessary route, and the decision was made in Geneva to
issue a call for papers for the networks mid-term meeting with the title Theorising
childhood. Childhood sociologists were invited to come to discuss a range of topics,
such as the place and relevance of the disciplines classics (Marx, Durkheim, Weber) in
childhood sociology and a range of newer approaches (e.g. Bourdieu, Luhmann,
Foucault) and directions (e.g. network theories, theories of spatiality and of rights) and
their relevance to the development of the sociology of childhood. In the summer of 2012,
30 sociologists assembled in Jyvskyl (Finland), where around 20 papers were pre-
sented and discussed on the topic of the meeting. Hopefully this small gathering is a sign
of a large and growing interest, as well as an encouragement, among childhood sociolo-
gists to rethink the role of theory in their work. (Some of the papers presented in the
meeting have already been developed into journal articles and have been published or are
on their way to be published, also in Childhood.)
In a sense theory and theorizing are always a part of social scientific research. The
need of (re)theorizing childhood which in the end brought forth the new sociology of
childhood in the 1980s and 1990s in itself demonstrates this. Theorizing is a way of
describing what sociologists of childhood are in the business of doing: they develop
theories of childhood. It is also a widespread belief within social science that empirical
sociological research should always be driven or informed by theory. This provides one
justification also for editors of social science journals and reviewers of submitted papers
to reject papers if they are atheoretical or undertheorized or fail to make a theoretical
contribution.
Theory is thus a largely taken-for-granted resource in sociology. It is however also a
term with multiple meanings in the sociological language. Gabriel Abend (2008), for an
example, notes that theory is overloaded with meanings and this places theory
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Editorial 5
in danger of losing any semantic traction. He identifies seven different senses of the
theory as used by sociologists, from universal propositions and causal explanations of
particular social phenomena to ways of understanding, interpreting or making sense of
them. In other cases the meaning of theory is the study of the writings of named theo-
rists, or a particular perspective from which one sees and interprets the world which is
the general intention in references to a theoretical approach, school, framework,
tradition, viewpoint or paradigm (Abend, 2008: 179180). Confusions about the
meaning of theory may in turn have undesirable consequences, such as (artificial) disa-
greements, conceptual muddles and miscommunication.
While instructive, the practical help that any taxonomy of meanings of theory can
provide for the enterprise of theorizing will remain slender. A more fruitful way of
assessing the present state of theorizing in childhood sociology with the aim of outlin-
ing possible future agendas for theorizing childhood is by juxtaposing with trends in
current theorizing within general sociology. Sociological theory has a long history of
taking stock of itself, and general reviews of the existing sociological literature are not
just occasional undertakings but part of the routine activity of doing sociology. There are
also many ways of theory construction; e.g. for the period starting from the mid-1980s
Camic and Gross (1998) have identified as many as eight different projects of theoriz-
ing in contemporary sociology. Their list is both selective and non-exhaustive, and in
other periods of time the list would most certainly be different. Also the projects are
internally heterogeneous and, as a rule, are not mutually exclusive of each other. Camis
and Gross (1998) identify altogether eight theoretical projects of the period and describe
examples of each: (1) constructing general analytical tools for use in empirical research;
(2) synthesizing multiple theoretical approaches; (3) refining existing theoretical research
programmes; (4) stimulating dialogue among different theoretical perspectives; (5)
enlarging and reconstructing current theoretical approaches conceptually, methodologi-
cally, socially and politically; (6) engaging with past theoretical ideas; (7) offering a
diagnosis of contemporary social conditions; and finally (8) dissolving the enterprise of
sociological theory (enacted by the post-modernist anti-project).
Of these projects the one that perhaps best describes the intention of much of the
work done within childhood sociology has been within the frame of project 5:
Enlargement and reconstruction of current theoretical approaches, especially if we here
substitute the whole field of sociology for current theoretical approaches in sociology.
It has been the long-term project of childhood sociology since a lack of childhood
issues in mainstream sociology was identified in the 1980s to fill the conceptual, meth-
odological, social, moral and political lacunae that still exist in the theories and research
of mainstream sociology. For the few past decades this work has understandably been
oriented towards the empirical, in the aim to bring children and childhood into visibility
as social and sociological issues. As this first, enlarging phase of childhood hopefully
continues to expand, there now seems to be an increasing trend towards a more self-
confident and sophisticated mode of theorizing childhood. Camic now increasingly take
into use and work with theoretical resources from other areas of sociology, with the aim
of theorizing childhood and moving childhood into these theories, i.e. reconstructing the
subject matter of those theories. In Childhood 19(4), for instance, Nigel Thomas (2012)
explores the usefulness of Axel Honneths theory of a struggle for recognition for a
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6 Childhood 21(1)
theory of participation that would include also childrens participation. In the present
issue Cath Larkins (2014) develops a new understanding of how children enact them-
selves as citizens, thus challenging dominant definitions in citizenship theory, and in a
forthcoming article Pascale Garnier (2014) draws on Luc Boltanskis pragmatic sociol-
ogy of critique and justification to understand childadult relations as a moral and politi-
cal order.
I would like to think that texts like these in fact foreshadow a theoretical turn in
childhood sociology. Such a turn, in parallel and in interplay with the rich and multifac-
eted empirical research on childhood, will help to provide not just critiques of, but also
forceful interventions into mainstream sociology that will assist in incorporating the
missing childhood piece into what we conceive of as the discipline of sociology.
References
Abend G (2008) The meaning of theory. Sociological Theory 26(2): 173199.
Bhler-Niederberger D (2010) Introduction: Childhood sociology Defining the state of the art
and ensuring reflection. Current Sociology 58(2): 155164.
Camic C and Gross N (1998) Contemporary developments in sociological theory: Current projects
and conditions of possibility. Annual Review of Sociology 24: 453476.
Garnier P (2014) Childhood as a question of critiques and justifications: Insights into Boltanskis
sociology. Childhood. Epub ahead of print 4 July 2013. DOI:10.1177/0907568213491770.
Kampman J (2003) Barndomssociologi fra marginaliseret provocatr til mainstream leverandr.
Dansk sociologi 4(2): 7993.
Larkins C (2014) Enacting childrens citizenship: Developing understandings of how children
enact themselves as citizens through actions and Acts of citizenship Childhood 21(1): 721.
Moran-Ellis J (2010) Reflections on the sociology of childhood in the UK. Current Sociology
59(2): 186205.
Qvortrup J (2003) Editorial: An established field, or a breakthrough still pending? Childhood
10(4): 395400.
Strandell H (2010) From structure-action to politics of childhood: Sociological childhood research
in Finland. Current Sociology 58(2): 165185.
Thomas N (2012) Love, rights and solidarity: Studying childrens participation using Honneths
theory of recognition. Childhood 19(4): 453466.
Leena Alanen, Co-editor
University of Jyvskyl, Finland
October 2013
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