Children and Violence

Sociology of childhood conceives childhood as a structural category of social inequality, discrimination, or marginalization, and has coined a plethora of concepts, including generational order, generationing, doing age, adultism, or childism. On the other hand, focusing on children’s agency, selves, peer cultures, participation, or voice highlights the positive contributions of children to social order and institutional lives. What is missing is a systematic approach that links the social position of children and childhood to contexts of violence (for example, abuse in families and between peers, structural violence by the state or institutions, or living under conditions of war and conflict). These contexts represent situations of an accentuated precarious position. Consequently, it remains to be investigated what forms of agency are still possible under such severely restricted conditions, and how violence shapes the allocation of rights, resources, and obligations that make up childhood.

This session invites theoretical-conceptual and empirical papers that investigate the causes, modes, trajectories, or outcomes of violence as it shapes childhood and the children who have to live through this. By drawing together diverse theoretical, methodological, and inter-disciplinary perspectives, this session aims to foster a deeper understanding of how violence is embedded in the everyday and extraordinary conditions of childhood. We aim to engage scholars whose work examines the social structures, cultural narratives, and power relations that shape children’s experiences of harm, and who seek to push forward critical debates on protection, justice, and social change.