654
Intersecting Childhood Identities and Parenting in Everyday Lives of Children
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC53 Sociology of Childhood (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
Childhood studies have longstanding interest in questions around multiple social inequalities and identities in diverse socio-spatial contexts, but have not yet seriously considered the politics of intersectionality. Intersectional analyses contribute significantly to the understanding of the complexity of childhood identities in relation to gender, sexuality, disability, ethnicity, language, race, class, and age. On the other hand, Children/childhood cannot be understood without relating to parenting/ parents or primary caregivers who play a pivotal role in facilitating the knowledge, skills and environment that can shape everyday lives of children.
The session asks this basic question: how do the dynamics of race/class/gender/sexuality/disability/age shape children’s lives and Parenting practices? The session, thus, proposes to disseminate innovative research, policy and practice by articulating the interrelation between parents and children through prism of everyday life experiences by applying intersectional theoretical insights. The session invites contributions to investigate the different ways in which this framework can be put into practice by practitioners and policy makers. The session also explores the structure-agency dialogue and to draw off theories embedded in the Sociology of Childhood as a means of scrutinizing the ‘family space’ and the role of the individual child and the parents within it and as part of it. Since we recognize children as competent agents of their own destiny the value of opening windows into those spaces where children experience their everyday lives can only be fully understood by ‘zooming out’ and recognising the parent –child interrelation within the wider web of other social relations and practices.