Exploring Childhood and Youth

This exciting new book illustrates and analyses the complexities of children's and young people's everyday lived experiences throughout childhood. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it provides theoretical frameworks and case studies to critically examine assumptions in the field and explore emerging perspectives. Considering different stages throughout childhood and youth, chapters cover key topics such as eating practices, gender, play, digital media and the environment. Drawing upon insights from cultural studies, sociology, social anthropology, psychology, health and education, this book focuses on four key areas: - Bodies and minds - Space, place and belonging - Inequalities and inclusion - Childhood in the past, present and future Essential reading for students on childhood and youth and education courses, Exploring Childhood and Youth is an important resource for practitioners working with children and young people, and for parents, communities and legislators who have influence over children's and young people's lives.

Victoria Cooper is Senior Lecturer in Childhood and Youth Studies at The Open University, UK and is former Co-Director of the Children's Research Centre. She is particularly interested in issues of identity, research methods, and children and young people's experiences living with a family health crisis. Naomi Holford is Lecturer in Childhood and Youth Studies at The Open University, UK, and specialises in the area of gender, sexuality and class in childhood and youth.

1. Fluid identities  2. Understanding the Unborn (or Becoming a Child)  3. Critical mental health  4. Everyday experiences of food  5. Everyday violence  6. Spaces for learning  7. Play  8. Young people, children and voluntourism  9. Experiences of poverty  10. How gender hurts, how gender matters  11.: Disability  12. Inequalities in further and higher education  13. The history of disabilities 14. Changing environments: plastic childhoods