Social Studies of Children and Childhood. Theoretical Approaches and Questions in Child Research

This PhD course will present and discuss theorizing within the interdisciplinary research tradition Social Studies of Children and Childhood (also named Sociology of childhood). This gives rise to several theoretical approaches and questions in studying children and childhood that will be discussed. Being developed in the 1980-90s Sociology of childhood has a history that will be given attention to as well as the theoretical landscape it relates to. The course will in particular attend to theoretical perspectives and concepts that are promoted, and will further contextualize the diversities of this research tradition as well as presenting and discussing the more recent critique, both from within and from more external theoretical positions. Further, Social Studies of Children and Childhood has been developed in Europe and US, but is spreading beyond Global North, and it is increasingly applied in child research in Global South contexts, which has given rise to new questions and challenges that should be discussed.

The student should:

- acquire a good overview, thorough knowledge and understanding of central theoretical perspectives and concepts within Social Studies of Children and Childhood

- be familiar with historical moments of previous theorizing and the development of Social Studies of Children and Childhood as a research tradition

- have a good understanding of a relevant theoretical landscape, which this research tradition either draws upon or criticizes

- be able to identify key debates and critically discuss current research and scholarships of Social Studies of Children and Childhood, and

- be able to discuss with substantial knowledge and insights the theoretical contributions that Social Studies of Children and Childhood has made.

Total lecture hours: ca. 20. The teaching language is English.

The students are required to contribute actively when participating in the course. The different PhD projects will be presented by the students and serve as examples for how to theoretically frame research and to discuss the applicability of insights from Social Studies of Children and Childhood. Although this course focuses on one research tradition, it should benefit the necessity of critical thinking and theoretical reflexivity in general.

The form of assessment is paper, 15-20 pages (Times New Roman 12, space 1.5). In writing an individual paper, the student should be able to identify, apply and elaborate relevant theoretical perspective(s) and concepts that are central in Social Studies of Children and Childhood and her/his own PhD project. The paper should reflect the course literature, both the obligatory reading list (500 pages) and an individual reading list of 200 pages that each student select in order to adapt to their specific research interests.

The PhD students are offered individual supervision - one consultation - during their work with the paper.