The historical and social construction of childhood: a dialogue between some of the main contemporary researchers who study themes related to children's culture and childhood

Abstract

This theoretical-bibliographical research seeks to identify recent studies on the universe of children and illustrates how to understand it based on historical and social construction. It permeates research from the Children and Childhood Study and Research Group (GEPCI), at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul – Aquidauana Campus (UFMS/CPAQ). It is guided by the perspective of the social history of childhood and children, in which the focus interweaves the concern and need to investigate the origin of concepts taking into account the context, production, and their social relations, as well as an overview of the conceptions of the main researchers who study topics related to children's culture and childhood, such as: Manuel Sarmento (2004), Alan Prout (2010), Willian Corsaro (2011), Régine Sirota (2006), and Jens Qvortup (2011). In this way, the record in question highlights what these researchers think and how it is, for society, the child studies, especially the sociology of childhood. For research purposes, the set of contributions from the thinkers gathered here expresses the vigor and challenge of a group willing to study childhood from a new perspective: giving the child an unprecedented protagonism. Thus, this study is an opportunity to learn about the perspectives adopted by a group of researchers who have helped to renew the debate in the social and human sciences of our time, and that, in some way, they are capable of underlining new investigations and instigating pedagogical practices that are more sensitive and respectful of children's possibilities and rights.