Childhood

Do you remember collecting shrapnel and listening to Children's Hour? Carrying gas masks or sharing your school with evacuees from the city? The 1940s was a time of great challenge for everyone who lived through it. From the hardships and fear of a World War, with Britain's towns and cities were being bombed on an almost nightly basis, to the trauma of being parted from ones parents and sent away to the country to live with complete strangers. For just over half of this decade the war continued, meaning food and clothing shortages became a way of life. But through it all, and afterwards, the simplicity of kids shone through. From collecting bits of shot down German aircraft to playing in bomb-strewn streets, kids made their own fun. Then there was the joy of the second half of this decade when fathers came home and fun things started up again. This trip down memory lane will take you through the most memorable and evocative experiences of growing up in the 1940s.

Childhood has become central to socio-political debates and policy initiatives both nationally and globally. Despite the privileges afforded to children in the West, Western childhoods are no longer seen as the 'ideal' to which all should aspire. Recent reports and policy concerns suggest that growing up in the West may be marked by the commercialisation of childhood, leading to unhappiness, poor health, loss of innocence and a general lack of wellbeing among children themselves. Understanding childhood is a fresh look at how childhood has changed in recent years and reveals how children's needs and experiences have achieved a new visibility. It introduces readers to the cross-disciplinary field of Childhood Studies and offers an exciting and unique exploration of childhood as a concept, in the process engaging with a range of contemporary issues that shape our ideas of childhood as an ideal and a lived experience. The diverse nature of childhood is a key theme, explored here from different research perspectives and academic traditions. A range of anthropological, developmental and sociocultural approaches are also discussed. This volume is the first in a series of four books, written by experts in the field, which provides an introduction to childhood degree programmes and related modules. The series features international case studies, examples and readings to supplement the chapters, and is illustrated in full colour.

Childhoods in context offers a critical exploration of childhood, drawing attention to the physical and social context of children and young people's lives. Three key themes are explored: Childhood is always located somewhere. The book offers insights into childhood by focusing on places specially designed for children as well as the territories that children develop for themselves. Childhood is experienced through objects, people and places and through everyday routines. Discussions about childhood are rooted in the details of children's lives, whether on the street, in an institution or in different definitions of home. Childhood and adult identities are relational. Definitions and understandings of childhood are dependent on how adulthood is viewed. These themes are explored through accounts of home and family, school, public spaces and sites of work in local and global settings. They raise questions about methodological approaches to understanding childhoods in context which is the focus of the concluding chapter. This is the third in a series of four books, written by experts in the field, which provides an introduction to childhood degree programmes and related modules. The series features international case studies, examples and readings to supplement the chapters, and is illustrated in full colour.

Children and young people in the early twenty-first century encounter, and creatively adapt to, a range of cultural phenomena in an increasingly mediated, commercialised and globalised world. Children and young people's cultural worlds offers a critical introduction to childhood in the digital age. Childhood innocence is a concept that often underpins the way adults think about children and new technologies. The book challenges adult concerns, highlighting instead the diversity of children's experiences and relationships with each other. Children's everyday activities are explored, in an attempt to understand the distinctiveness of their cultural worlds. The book also considers matters of difference on children's lives; the consequences of age and the experience of living in different cultural contexts. This is the second in a series of four books, written by experts in the field, which provides an introduction to childhood degree programmes and related modules. The series features international case studies, examples and readings to supplement the chapters, and is illustrated in full colour.