Sarada Balagopalan, John Wall et al. (Eds.): The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies
Reviewed by Prof. Dr. Manfred Liebel, 2024-06-12
Sarada Balagopalan, John Wall, Karen Wells (Eds.): The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies. Bloomsbury (New York, NY 10018) 2023. 392 pages. ISBN 978-1-350-26384-0.
There is a detailed German review for this work. Read here
Discussion
Many of the chapters in the handbook are an expression of what might be termed the post-structuralist turn in childhood studies. This turn questions and revises the use of agency as an organizing concept in childhood studies and has moved away from the classical structure-agency binary of many sociological theories. The key structures that shape childhood, such as the family, the legal system and school, were already the focus of established disciplines of social theory. According to the editors, childhood research was able to offer these social theories an account of children’s responses to these structures as social actors, something that was lacking in the deterministic concepts of these other disciplines.
The theoretical approaches and their interrelationships described in the handbook do not exist in a vacuum. The influence of existing theories on childhood studies as a multidisciplinary field of research is widely recognized. The chapters in this handbook show that children and childhoods are not only new figures to which existing theories are applied, but they also test the limits of theoretical assumptions and extend them productively in new directions. Childhood research can itself generate critical new theories.
The editors hope that readers will find in this handbook a rich treasure trove of theoretical possibilities that will inspire new ways of thinking. Childhood research is indeed an exciting field, partly because it calls for new theoretical perspectives to understand the lives of an (age) group that is often ignored. It is no coincidence that the editors find that children in society and childhood studies in academia are often marginalized. They agree that well-founded and creative theoretical tools are needed to better visualize, understand and recognize children’s lives and particular childhoods. The handbook is proof that childhood studies can enrich critical theory in this way and even be itself.
However, some questions also arise. In contrast to earlier comparable publications, the handbook places a strong emphasis on the importance of theories that deal with racism and the after-effects or current covert forms of colonial rule. This emphasis is to be welcomed. However, it is regrettable that hardly any theoretical and epistemological contributions on childhoods that exist and are discussed outside the English-American language area are taken up. Only one author (Lucia Rabello de Castro) is at home in a region of the Global South where another language, Brazilian Portuguese, is spoken and, like Spanish, is frequently used in literature. Only one contribution comes from a group of authors of indigenous origin (Onyx Sloan Morgan et al.), in this case from Canada, who also combine their research with decolonial activism. Only the contribution of one author (Jessica K. Taft) crosses the English language boundary, in which she takes up the discourses on the “protagonismo” of working children that are common in Latin America. It is certainly to be appreciated that the authors of the handbook include people who, as part of the Black minority in the USA, have been directly affected by racism and the aftermath of slavery. One of the editors (Sarada Balagopalan) also comes from India and is familiar with the childhoods of the Global South and the corresponding research due to her own biography. All of this must be acknowledged.
Overall, however, it would be desirable for publications on theories in childhood studies to pay more attention to and take up the discourses that are conducted outside the English-speaking world and to engage more critically with the discourses and ways of knowing in the social sciences that have been common in the academic world of the Global North to date. Their influence also manifests itself in the academic jargon of the introduction and some chapters, which in my opinion is unnecessarily stilted. It breathes the unfortunate spirit of a detached academic world. It may be that my limited knowledge of English made it difficult for me to understand some parts of the book. But the handbook would have gained in value if the editors and authors had tried to make themselves understood in simpler language.
Fortunately, a key aim of the handbook is to give greater attention to previously ignored childhoods in the Global South and to include them in research. As a researcher who grew up in Europe and spent a large part of his life here, it would be presumptuous to deny other researchers with similar biographies the right and competence to conduct childhood studies with a decolonial perspective. But I know from my own experience that one’s own thinking and the way in which one arrives at new insights into ignored and invisibilized childhoods depends very much on allowing oneself to be existentially touched by these childhoods. This is only possible if, as a researcher, I engage with the lives and specific ways of experiencing and thinking of children in the Global South beyond temporary research projects. The epistemological, ethical and political challenges associated with this should also be addressed in a handbook on theories in childhood studies.
Conclusion
The handbook provides a sophisticated and reliable overview of the diverse theoretical approaches in childhood studies that have been developed in the last two decades in particular. It draws attention to the theoretical and epistemological challenges facing childhood studies that does not want to understand childhood from a limited Eurocentric perspective. However, it would also have been desirable to take up discourses and theoretical approaches that can be found outside the English-speaking world.
Review by
Prof. Dr. Manfred Liebel
Master of Arts Childhood Studies and Children’s Rights (MACR) an der Fachhochschule Potsdam, Fachbereich Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaften
Website
Mailform
There are 104 Reviews of Manfred Liebel.
Cite this publication
Manfred Liebel, 2024. Review of:
Sarada Balagopalan, John Wall, Karen Wells (Ed.): The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies. Bloomsbury
2023.
ISBN 978-1-350-26384-0.
In: socialnet Reviews, 2024-06-12. ISSN 2190-9245. Retrieved 2024-09-14 from https://www.socialnet.de/en/reviews/31421.php.
Copyright
This review, like all other content on socialnet, is protected by copyright.
If you are interested in using it, please make an agreement with us beforehand.
The editorial staff
of the reviews will be happy to answer any further questions and make arrangements.