The Sociology of Childhood: outline of a map

Since the 1980s and, more evidently, from the 1990s on, the Sociology of Childhoodhas increased and consolidated itself as an important theoretical frame for thinking through little children’s education and cultural universe. Researches from Portugal, France, and England, among other countries, show the contributions and the relevance of this area, considering different themes and theoretical arrangements. This paper tries to put together different works on the Sociology of Childhood aiming to sketch a map of their main themes and assumptions. In this paper the theme of children’s protagonism is approached according to the idea that children are social actors and that the concepts on what is a child or childhood are socially constructed. The socialization processes are also discussed and questioned, since they allow the (re)configuration of rites and rituals, producing the so called children’s culture(s). These themes put, in the end, a challenge for the Sociology of Childhood: how can we develop adequate methodologies for researches involving children, in order to improve what we know and what we do with and for them?