The Sociology of Childhood

William A. Corsaro was Robert H. Shaffer Class of 1967 Endowed Chair and is nowProfessor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington,where he won the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1988. He was the firstrecipient of the Distinguished Career Award for the Section on Children and Youth ofthe American Sociological Association in 2013. He taught courses on the sociology ofchildhood, childhood in contemporary society, and ethnographic research methods.His primary research interests are the sociology of childhood, children’s peer cultures,the sociology of education, and ethnographic research methods. Corsaro is the author ofFriendship and Peer Culture in the Early Years (1985), author of “We’re Friends, Right?” InsideKids’ Culture (2003), and coauthor with Luisa Molinari of I Compagni: UnderstandingChildren’s Transition From Preschool to Elementary School (2005). He is the coeditorwith Jens Qvortrup and Michael-Sebastian Honig (2009) of The Palgrave Handbook ofChildhood Studies. Corsaro was a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow in Bologna, Italy, in1983-1984 and a Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellow in Trondheim, Norway, in 2003.He received an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University, Sweden, in 2016 and wasrecipient of the Cooley-Mead Award from the Social Psychology Section of the AmericanSociological Association in 2019. Judson G. Everitt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at LoyolaUniversity Chicago. He has served on the faculty at Loyola since 2009. Dr. Everittearned his Ph.D. in sociology at Indiana University with a doctoral minor in EducationalLeadership and Policy Studies. His research examines the interconnections among organizations,culture, and socialization with a particular focus on the professions. His prior workexamines teachers’ professional socialization in his book, Lesson Plans: The InstitutionalDemands of Becoming a Teacher (2018), and he recently coauthored an updated editionof The Sociology of Education with Jeanne Ballantine and Jenny Stuber (2022). His mostrecent work examines how medical students interpret and respond to institutional pressuresin health care through the student cultures they form in medical school.

• PART ONE: THE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF CHILDHOOD1. Social Theories of ChildhoodSociology’s Rediscovery of ChildhoodTraditional Theories: SocializationInterpretive Reproduction: Children Collectively Participate in SocietyLanguage and Cultural RoutinesFrom Individual Progression to Collective Reproductions2. The Structure of Childhood and Children’s Interpretive ReproductionsAssumptions of the Structural PerspectiveChildhood, Children’s Activities, and Interpretive Reproduction in Peer Culture3. Studying Children and ChildhoodMacrolevel MethodsMicrolevel MethodsNontraditional Methods in Studying ChildrenEthical Issues in Researching Children’s LivesPART TWO: CHILDREN, CHILDHOOD, AND FAMILIES IN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT4. Historical Views of Childhood and ChildrenPhilippe Ariès’s Centuries of ChildhoodThe Debate Regarding Grand-Stage Theories of the Family and ChildhoodThe New History of Childhood5. Social Change, Families, and ChildrenExamining Changes in Families From the Children’s PerspectiveChildren’s Everyday Lives in FamiliesThe Effects of Recent Socioeconomic Changes on Families, Children, and Childhood in Western SocietiesThe Effects of Recent Socioeconomic Changes on Children and Childhood in Developing SocietiesPART THREE: CHILDREN’S CULTURES6. Children’s Peer Cultures and Interpretive ReproductionExamining Peer Culture From Children’s PerspectiveCentral Importance of Peer Culture in Interpretive ReproductionSymbolic Aspects of Children’s CulturesMaterial Aspects of Children’s CulturesChildren, Parents, and Consumer Culture7. Sharing and Control in Initial Peer CulturesCentral Themes in Children’s Initial Peer CulturesFriendship, Sharing, and Social ParticipationAutonomy and Control in Peer Culture8. Conflict and Differentiation in the Initial Peer CultureConflict and Peer RelationsSocial Differentiation in Initial Peer Cultures9. Preadolescent Peer CulturesPeer Cultures in PreadolescenceFriendship Processes in Preadolescent Peer CulturesAutonomy and Identity in Preadolescent Peer CulturesDisputes, Conflict, Friendships, and GenderGeneration M: Electronic Media in the Lives of Preadolescents and AdolescentsEffects and Process of Media Use in the Lives of Preadolescents and AdolescentsPART FOUR: CHILDREN, SOCIAL PROBLEMS, AND THE FUTURE OF CHILDHOOD10. Children, Social Problems, and the FamilyChanging Family Structures and Children’s LivesWork, Families, and ChildhoodDivorce and Its Effects on Children11. Children, Social Problems, and SocietyPoverty and the Quality of Children’s LivesTeen Pregnancy and Nonmarital BirthsViolence, Victimization, and the Loss of ChildhoodThe Profound and Inspiring Resilience of Children and Youth in Highly Challenging Life Circumstances12. The Future of ChildhoodThe Major ChallengesSome More Modest Proposals to Enrich Children’s LivesConclusion