School of Sociology and Social Policy

'The Child' and 'Childhood' in Theory and Policy

15 September 2010 - 15 September 2010 | 10am - 4pm (Registration from 9.30am) | Conference

** Registraton deadline extended**

This conference is being organised by the BSA/SPA Study Group for the Sociology of Social and Public Policy in collaboration with the University of Leeds and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Organisers: Dr Angharad Beckett (University of Leeds), Prof. Dan Goodley and Dr Katherine Runswick-Cole (Manchester Metropolitan University)

The 'Happy Child'; The 'Obese Child'; The 'Gifted Child'; The 'Disabled Child'; The 'Poor Child'; The 'Out of Control Child'; The 'Hard to Place Child'; The 'Healthy Child'; The 'Confident Child'; The 'Citizen Child'

'Lost Childhoods'; The 'End of Childhood'; The 'Innocence of Childhood'; The 'Voice of the Child'

'Child-focused'; 'Child-friendly'; 'Child-centred'; 'Inclusive'

How concepts such as these of 'the child' and 'childhood' are constructed, reconstructed and deconstructed continues to be the focus of research across many disciplines in the humanities, social and medical sciences.  There is widespread interest in how constructs of 'the child' and 'childhood' are generated, embedded and sustained within legislation and policy in areas such as health, welfare, education and leisure.

This conference has two aims.  Aim 1 is to foster dialogue between academics from different disciplinary backgrounds and to explore the manner in which knowledge, perspectives and methods developed in these disciplines may lead to particular understandings of phenomena or perceptions of 'problems' and 'solutions'.  Aim 2 is to explore current practices surrounding the participation of children in research and policy-making and how to access and take account of children's 'lifeworlds'.

We welcome abstracts for papers and poster-presentations from researchers working in the area of child/childhood research, irrespective of discipline, who would like to contribute to a transdisciplinary discussion.  Papers and poster-presentations should address one or both of the conference aims.  Papers should be 20 minutes in length, to leave time for questions.

The Conference will inlcude plenaries:

Sarah Irwin (University of Leeds)

'Working Across Qualitative and Quantitative data.  Childhood, Youth and Social Inequalities'

Dan Goodley & Katherine Runswick-Cole (Manchester Metropolitan University)

'Critical Psychologies of Disabled Childhoods: Disability Studies and the Psyche' 

Presentations from event

Sigrid Brogaard Clausen - The Good Life; Four-Year-Olds Talking About A Good Life

Sarah Bunt - The Adoption of Disabled Children

John Davis - From Deficit Models to Strength Based Approaches in Children's Services

Ally Dunhill & Jo Pike - Reconstructing the Inter-professional Children's Workforce

Angela Melchiorre & Ed Atkins - Not a minor matter: at what age does childhood end?

Dorothy Moss - Memory, Space and Time: Researching Children's Lives

Paola Ravaioli - Between Orthodox Discourse and Heterdox Interpretations.  The 'autonomous child' of Italian primary school pedagogy and social class inequalities in education

Toni Schwarz - Exploring the methodological challenges of research with young people to develop an understanding of unhappiness

Kate Smith - Millenium Cohort Study - involving the children of the new century

Susan Steward - Defining the 'working class child' in secondary school through the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC)

Jenny Waite-Jones & Anna Madill - What is it like to have a chronically/disabled sibling? Ask the family!