Childhood in Europe

• List of Tables
• p. xi

• Preface
• p. xiii

• 1
• Childhood Research, the Politics of Childhood, and Children's Lives in Europe: An Introduction
• p. 1

• About This Book
• p. 1

• What Can Be Said about European Children and Family Life?
• p. 2

• How Do European Children Experience Leisure and School?
• p. 5

• Depedagogization or Repedagogization?
• p. 8

• 2
• Rethinking the Liquidation of Childhood
• p. 13

• Introduction
• p. 13

• Children's Work Revisited: Neglected and New Realities
• p. 16

• Arrangements with an Expanded Consumer Culture
• p. 24

• Changing Involvements and Activity Systems
• p. 30

• Conclusion
• p. 34

• 3
• Pre-adolescent Children: An Essay
• p. 43

• Introduction
• p. 43

• Pre-adolescent Children: Previously Neglected, Now in High Demand
• p. 44

• The New Socio-Demography of Childhood--Or, What Becomes Noticeable When One Counts Children
• p. 45

• Young Citizens in Small Bodies: A Myth and Its Real Consequences
• p. 46

• Child or Youth? Differences in the Self-Images of the Young and the Way Others Perceive Them
• p. 47

• Personal Biographies and Personal Lifestyles
• p. 49

• Time of Education and Culture
• p. 50

• The Stress of the Parents Has Now Reached the Children
• p. 52

• It's the Speed Which Counts
• p. 52

• Life in Stressed Families
• p. 53

• Bullying at School, or Peers as Stress Factors
• p. 54

• What Role Do Parents Play in the Selection and Transmission of Cultural Standards to the Next Generation?
• p. 54

• 4
• Negotiation Families
• p. 63

• Introduction
• p. 63

• Socio-cultural Change in Western European Societies
• p. 65

• The Negotiation Household: A Modernized Educational Relationship
• p. 68

• Educational Relationships between Parents and Children
• p. 70

• Socio-economic and Socio-cultural Status
• p. 73

• Family Constellations
• p. 73

• Degree of Informalization
• p. 74

• Level of Conflict
• p. 75

• Family Climate
• p. 75

• The Perspectives of Parents versus the Perspectives of Children
• p. 76

• Protoprofessionalizing
• p. 77

• Parental Values and Model Function of Parents
• p. 77

• Ideas about the Future and Life Plans
• p. 78

• Two Case Histories
• p. 79

• The Poelstra Family: A Traditional Command Household
• p. 79

• The Heusen-Oostvogel Family: A Negotiation Household
• p. 82

• Concluding Remarks
• p. 85

• 5
• Power Relations in Children's Lives
• p. 91

• Introduction
• p. 91

• Patriarchy for Children?
• p. 93

• Weber and Patriarchal Authority
• p. 96

• Wives and Children
• p. 97

• Children, Wives, Work, and Money
• p. 98

• The Controls of Age Patriarchy
• p. 102

• Obedience
• p. 102

• Space
• p. 104

• The Body
• p. 105

• Time
• p. 106

• A New Kinship System?
• p. 109

• 6
• The Birthday: A Modern Childhood Socialization Ritual
• p. 117

• Le metier d'enfant: The Profession of Child in French Sociology
• p. 117

• The Appearance of a Ritual
• p. 119

• An Ethnographic Methodology
• p. 122

• The Emergence of New Sociabilities
• p. 122

• The Rules of the Birthday Party
• p. 123

• The Invitation Rule
• p. 124

• The Gift Rule
• p. 125

• The Return-Gift "Contre-Don" Rule
• p. 125

• The Decoration Rule
• p. 125

• The Dress Rule
• p. 126

• The Food Offering Rule
• p. 126

• The Pig-Out Rule
• p. 126

• The Specification and Individualization of the Cake Rule
• p. 127

• The Sharing of the Cake and the Decorum Rule
• p. 127

• The Candles on the Birthday Cake Rule
• p. 128

• The Song Celebration Rule and the Social Circle Rule
• p. 128

• The Parents' Presence Rule
• p. 128

• The Organized Games Rule
• p. 129

• The Sweet Memories Rule
• p. 129

• The Socialization Process through the Birthday Gift Negotiations
• p. 129

• The Construction of Child Identity
• p. 133

• 7
• Children's Islands in Space and Time: The Impact of Spatial Differentiation on Children's Ways of Shaping Social Life
• p. 139

• Introduction
• p. 139

• Changes in Children's Environments in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
• p. 141

• Changes in Children's Action Opportunities
• p. 144

• Changes in the Social Control of Action
• p. 145

• Insularization of Places Within the Individual Life Space
• p. 146

• Particularization of Social Relations
• p. 148

• Individualization of Shaping Daily Life
• p. 149

• Children's Various Ways of Shaping Social Life
• p. 151

• Temporally Based Social Relations
• p. 152

• Domesticated Neighborhood Life
• p. 154

• Social Islands
• p. 155

• Final Comments
• p. 156

• 8
• Children Are Schoolchildren: Relationships between School Culture and Child Culture
• p. 161

• Introduction
• p. 161

• The Perception in Society of the Relationship between Generations as an Educational Relationship
• p. 163

• Schoolchildren and Equal Opportunities in the Acquisition of School Education
• p. 165

• Schoolchildren and Equal Opportunities in Extracurricular Learning
• p. 166

• The Strong Influence of School in Children's Extracurricular Lives in the Perception of Children and Parents
• p. 170

• Case Group 1
• Far-Reaching Unity of Life and Learning at and outside School
• p. 171

• Case Group 2
• Orientation toward School Standards--Leisure Time as an Independent Area
• p. 172

• Case Group 3
• A Career Based on School Education
• p. 173

• Case Group 4
• School As a Necessary Evil--Leisure Time As a Counterbalance
• p. 173

• A Comparison of Cases
• p. 174

• School Educationalists' Interest in Children
• p. 175

• Summary
• p. 177

• 9
• Property, Power, and Prestige: The Feminization of Childhood
• p. 185

• Introduction
• p. 185

• The Argument
• p. 187

• Legal Rights to Children (the Case of Norway)
• p. 189

• Controlling Childbearing: A Gender Issue?
• p. 192

• Children's Families: A Reflection of a Gender Shift
• p. 194

• Consensual Unions
• p. 195

• Family Dissolution
• p. 197

• Parenting After Dissolution
• p. 198

• Changes in Fatherhood: Increased Togetherness and Separateness
• p. 201

• Welfare and Gender Policies
• p. 203

• A European View
• p. 205

• Conclusion
• p. 206

• 10
• Childhood as a Social Phenomenon Revisited
• p. 215

• Introduction
• p. 215

• Focused Research Areas
• p. 218

• Nine Theses about Childhood as a Social Phenomenon
• p. 223

• Thesis 1.
• Childhood Is a Particular and Distinct Form of Any Society's Social Structure
• p. 223

• Thesis 2.
• Childhood Is, Sociologically Speaking, not a Transient Phase but a Permanent Social Category
• p. 224

• Thesis 3.
• The Idea of the Child as Such is Problematic, while Childhood Is an Historical and Intercultural Category
• p. 225

• Thesis 4.
• Childhood is an Integral Part of Society and Its Division of Labor
• p. 225

• Thesis 5.
• Children Are Themselves Co-constructors of Childhood and Society
• p. 226

• Thesis 6.
• Childhood Is in Principle Exposed to the Same Societal Forces as Adulthood (e.g., Economically and Institutionally), Although in a Particular Way
• p. 227

• Thesis 7.
• Children's Stipulated Dependency Has Consequences for Children's Invisibility in History and Social Descriptions, as Well as for Their Entitlements to Welfare Provisions
• p. 229

• Thesis 8.
• The Ideology of the Family, not Parents, constitutes a Barrier against Children's Interests and Welfare
• p. 230

• Thesis 9.
• Childhood Is a Classic Minority Category, Which Is Subject to Both Marginalizing and Paternalizing Tendencies
• p. 232

• Recent Trends
• p. 232

• 11
• A Methodology for Making Children Count
• p. 243

• Foreword
• p. 243

• On the Sociography of Childhood
• p. 244

• Toward a Sociography of Childhood
• p. 246

• Some Methodological Considerations
• p. 247

• The Social Demography of Childhood
• p. 249

• Introductory Remarks
• p. 249

• Children, Adults, and the Elderly
• p. 251

• Children and Families
• p. 255

• Poor People, Poor Families and Poor Children
• p. 258

• Childhood and Fertility
• p. 263

• Concluding Remarks
• p. 264

• 12
• Childhood in Poland
• p. 273

• Discovering the Child and Childhood
• p. 273

• The Social Characteristics of Childhood
• p. 275

• Childhood in the School
• p. 280

• Culture in Childhood
• p. 284

• Childhood in Relationship to the Market and Money
• p. 287

• Children of the Middle Class
• p. 290

• Instead of a Conclusion
• p. 292

• 13
• Childhood Research, the Politics of Childhood, and Children's Lives in Germany
• p. 299

• Introduction
• p. 299

• Elements of Social Analysis
• p. 301

• Childhood
• p. 304

• Children's Lives and Rights
• p. 306

• Perspectives
• p. 308

• About the Authors
• p. 323