Different Childhoods

Different Childhoods: Non/Normative Development and Transgressive Trajectories opens up new avenues for exploring children's development as contextual, provisional and locally produced, rather than a unitary, universal and consistent process. This edited collection frames a critical exploration of the trajectory against which children are seen to be 'different' within three key themes: deconstructing 'developmental tasks', locating development and the limits of childhood. Examining the particular kinds of 'transgressive' development, contributors discuss instances of 'difference' including migration, work, assumptions of vulnerability, trans childhoods, friendships and involvement in crime. Including both empirical and theoretical discussions, the book builds on existing debates as part of the interrogation of 'different childhoods'. This book provides essential reading for students wishing to explore notions of development while also being of interest to both academics and practitioners working across a broad area of disciplines such as developmental psychology, sociology, childhood studies and critical criminology.

Lindsay O-Dell is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the Open University, UK. Her research interests focus on children, young people and families who are in some way 'different', including neurological difference, working children, young carers and language brokers. Charlotte Brownlow is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology and Counselling at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Her research interests focus on understandings of diversity and difference and the impacts that these have on the crafting of individual identities, particularly for individuals identifying as being on the autism spectrum. Hanna Bertilsdotter-Rosqvist is an Associate Professor in Sociology. She holds a position as Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Work, Umeå University, Sweden. Her research interests include autism politics and identity constructions among adults with autism. Other areas of interest are homonormativity, representations of bisexuality and intersecting notions of age, space and sexuality.

Chapter 1: Introducing normative and different childhoods, developmental trajectory and transgression, Lindsay O'Dell, Charlotte Brownlow, & Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist Part 1 - Deconstructing 'developmental tasks' Chapter 2: Exploring leisure, hobbies and special interests: The constructive role of special interests for children with ASD, Georgena Ryder & Charlotte Brownlow Chapter 3: Beyond boy and girl: Gender variance in childhood and adolescence, Katherine Johnson Chapter 4: Becoming a popular girl: Exploring constructions of friendships in teen magazines, Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist & Charlotte Brownlow Part 2 - Locating development Chapter 5: 'The failed child of the failing mother': Situating the development of child eating practices and the scrutiny of maternal foodwork, Maxine Woolhouse Chapter 6: Family relationships and troubled masculinities: The experience of young men in contact with social care services, Martin Robb, Brid Featherstone, Sandy Ruxton, & Michael Ward Chapter 7: Beyond vulnerability: Working with children who have experienced domestic violence, Jane Callaghan, Joanne Alexander, & Lisa Fellin Part 3 - The limits of childhood Chapter 8: Independent migrant children, humanitarian work and statecraft: Mapping the connections in South Africa, Stanford Mahati & Ingrid Palmary Chapter 9: Working children, Lindsay O'Dell, Sarah Crafter, Guida de Abreu, & Tony Cline Chapter 10: Parricides, school shootings and child soldiers: Constructing criminological phenomena in the context of children who kill, Amanda Holt Chapter 11: Conclusion: Theorising transgressive developmental trajectories and understanding children seen as 'different', Lindsay O'Dell, Charlotte Brownlow, & Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist