The Sociology of ChildhoodSociology for a New Century Series

"This sixth edition of The Sociology of Childhood, like the first five editions (published in 1997, 2005, 2011, 2015, and 2018), is about children and childhood from a sociological perspective. A major change in this edition is Judson Everitt joins William Corsaro as second author. This edition, like earlier ones, brings together many of Corsaro's ideas and experiences gained from his research and teaching in this area over the past 50 years. Everitt brings special expertise in the sociology of education along with the social problems of children and youth. Sociology has now established a tradition for studying children and childhood; although still understudied, these are no longer relegated to the margins of the field. There are now, in addition to the Sociology of Childhood, other basic texts in sociology on children and childhood, and a growing number of courses on the sociology of childhood are now offered at colleges and universities. Important theoretical and empirical work has been done by many scholars who advocate the conceptual autonomy of children and childhood (Alanen, 2009; Alanen et al., 2015; Boocock & Scott, 2005; Bragg & Kehily, 2013; Corsaro, 2003; Gabriel, 2017; James et al., 1998; Lee, 2001; Leonard, 2015; Mayall, 2002; McNamee, 2016; Prout, 2005; Qvortrup, 2009; Thorne, 1987; Wells, 2021; Wyness, 2018). Their work focuses on children as the basic units and categories of study. Children and childhood become the center of analysis; they are no longer linked to other categories, such as families or schools, upon which they are supposedly dependent (Qvortrup, 1994a; 2009). In addition, we have seen substantial growth in membership in the research section of Sociology of Children and Youth in the American Sociological Association and in the thematic group on Sociology of Childhood in the International Sociological Association"--