French Childhood Sociology

Abstract

French Speaking childhood sociology emerged slowly at the end of the 1990s, through a critical analysis of the notion of socialization. It is still a fragmented field combining all the social sciences. Within the framework of a ‘return to the actor’, marked by interpretative theories and symbolic interactionism, some sociologists of education played an important part in this rediscovery, paying attention to ‘pupilhood’ ( métier d’élève), and then to the métier d’enfant. The new status of the child in modernity was thus scrutinized within the framework of theories of individualism. The main research trends are: a reflexive view of expert discourses, the child as a social actor, social policies and childhood and children’s culture. From the ‘king child’ to the ‘child as a victim’, the political, juridical and media scene is constantly fuelled by a number of heated debates about the new figures of childhood, the child of desire, the child as problem, the child at risk, or the dangerous child. The article ends with series of challenges for the future of the sociology of childhood.