Overview

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies brings together an international group of childhood studies scholars who work with a range of critical theories. It speaks to both scholars and students by addressing questions such as how childhoods are diversely constructed and how children’s experiences can be better understood. The volume draws together a diversity of theoretical perspectives from the social sciences and humanities such as critical race studies, disability studies, posthumanism, feminism, politics, decolonialism, queer theory and postcolonialism to generate a much-needed conversation about how to move childhood studies forward as a grounded field of research. The volume is subdivided into three sections - subjectivities, relationalities, and structures - each of which addresses different but interrelated approaches to childhood studies theorization. This handbook will be an essential text not just for childhood studies researchers, but for all those interested in theorizing what childhood is, what work it does and who children are.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sarada Balagopalan (Rutgers University, USA) ,  John Wall (Rutgers University, USA) ,  Karen Wells (Birkbeck, University of London, UK)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 16.90cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 24.40cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9781350263994

ISBN 10:   1350263990
Pages:   392
Publication Date:   27 November 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  

Table of Contents

1. Introduction, Sarada Balagopalan (Rutgers University, USA), John Wall (Rutgers University, USA), and Karen Wells (Birkbeck, University of London, UK) Part I: Subjectivities 2. Mission Impossible: Investing Children with Literary Authorities, Anna Mae Duane (University of Connecticut, USA) 3. Democracy and Developmentalism: The Logics of Child Exclusion, Toby Rollo (Lakehead University, Canada) 4. Why Theorize 'Difference'?: Postcolonialism and Childhood Studies, Sarada Balagopalan (Rutgers University, USA) 5. Thinking with Ontology in Childhood Studies, Spyros Spyrou (European University Cyprus, Cyprus) 6. Childhoods, Materialities, and Spatialities: Theorising 'Beyond' the Subject, Peter Kraftl (University of Birmingham, UK) 7. Inviting Disability: Disabled Children and Studies of Childhood, Katherine Runswick-Cole, Dan Goodley and Kirsty Liddiard (University of Sheffield, UK) 8. Queer Theory and Childhood Studies, Utsa Mukerjee (University of Southampton, UK) 9. Locating Children's Moral Subjectivities and 'Voice' in Research with Children and Young People, Ilina Singh (University of Oxford, UK) Part II: Relationalities 10. Children, Childhoods and Decolonial Theory, Lucia Rabello de Castro (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) 11. Drawing Back from Children's Agency: Assemblage as Ontology, Description and Relationality, David Oswell (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK) 12. Toward a Black Feminism for Black Girls, Aria S. Halliday (University of Kentucky, USA) 13. Living Rights Theory, Olga Nieuwenhuys and Karl Hanson (University of Geneva, Switzerland) 14. Protagonismo and Power: Building Political Theory with Young Activists, Jessica Taft (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA) 15. Childhood Prism Research, Hanne Warming (Roskilde University, Denmark) 16. Childism: Transforming Critical Theory in Response to Children, John Wall (Rutgers University, USA) 17. Queer Aesthetics and Childhood Stories, Hannah Dyer (Brock University, Canada) Part III: Structures 18. Children and Power Relations: The Contribution of Governmentality Theory to Childhood Studies, Karen Smith (University College Dublin, Ireland) 19. Critical Realism and Theories of Babies’ Rights, Priscilla Alderson (University College London, UK) 20. Theorizing Racialisation, Epistemic Violence and Children’s Intersectional Positioning, Ann Phoenix (University College London, UK) 21. Childhood in and Through Social Reproduction Theory, Rachel Rosen (University College London, UK) 22. Coloniality and the Geographies of Children and Youth in Rural Northern Turtle Island and Beyond, Onyx Sloan Morgan, Christine Añonuevo, Richel Donaldson, Marion Erickson, Kimberley Thomas, Margo Greenwood, and Sarah de Leeuw (University of Northern British Colombia, Canada) 23. Theorizing ‘Surplus Populations’ in Racial Capitalism Through Juvenile Justice, Karen Wells (Birkbeck, University of London, UK) 24. Growing Up Jim Crow: Child Science, Racial Segregation, and Black Children’s Ways of Knowing, Paula Austin (Boston University, USA) 25. Theorizing Child Migration: Experiences, Governance, Normativity, Jonathan Josefsson (Linköping University, Sweden) 26. Critical Childhood Studies Meets Critical Legal Scholarship, Hedi Viterbo (Queen Mary University London, UK) Index

Reviews

""A wonderful new resource for researchers and students interested in leading edge concepts in childhood studies."" --John Horton, Professor and Research Leader in the Faculty of Health, Education & Society, University of Northampton, UK

Author Information

SARADA BALAGOPALAN is Associate Professor of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University, USA. JOHN WALL is Professor and Chair of Philosophy and Religion with Joint Appointment in the Department of Childhood Studies, and Director of the Childism Institute at Rutgers University, USA. KAREN WELLS is Professor of International Development and Childhood Studies and the Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research at Birkbeck, University of London, UK.

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