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Childhood Today
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Childhood Today

First Edition
Edited by:


October 2017 | 160 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

"This is an urgently needed book that explores a number of different concepts of childhood in 21st century. The book throughout considers enduring topics and new concepts of childhood, and initiates a number of questions that students of education, childhood and early childhood studies can engage as lines of inquiries. The book offers a multidisciplinary approach of the child today, that influences practice, policy, and education, and offers diverse dimensions to provoke our thinking." - Dr. Ioanna Palaiologou, Institute of Education, University College London

How we understand what ‘childhood’ means in today’s society is constantly changing, and the rate of this change is unprecedented. This new edited book explores what it really means to be a child of the 21st century, and how we as professionals, researchers, parents and adults can understand an environment seemingly in constant flux.

Each chapter seeks to explore and problematise some of the different ‘labels’ that we give to children in an attempt to understand their contemporary experiences. From the Regulated Child to the Stressed Child to the Poor Child the book covers a wide array of key issues in contemporary childhood, including obesity, risk, special needs, wellbeing and poverty.

The pace of change in childhood can be daunting but this book helps students, practitioners and researchers to explore and understand the variety of issues affecting children in the UK and all over the world.


Alex Owen
1. Introduction
Zoi Nikiforidou
2. The Cotton Wool Child
Jim Stack
3. The Selfish Child
Theodora Papatheodorou
4. The Universal Child
Marie Caslin
5. The SEN/D Child
Carol Aubrey, Carolyn Blackburn, Charlotte Jones & Rosemarie Lowe
6. The Regulated Child
Nina Sajaniemi
7. The Stressed Child
Sue Cronin, Ged Mulhaney & Michelle Pearson
8. The Political Child
Harriet Pattison
9. The Natural Child
Babs Anderson & Alex Owen
10. The Poor Child
Laura Waite& Erin Pritchard
11. The Fat Child

This text provides a fascinating insight into the multifaceted arena of contemporary childhood. Its critical stance will enable readers to evaluate what childhood means to them. Questions at the end of each chapter provide the opportunity for reflection, which can be used within a seminar setting to promote discussion. A thought-provoking book for students studying teaching, developmental psychology or early childhood studies.

Mrs Suzi Smale
Psychology, Petroc College
May 31, 2018

This gives a good insight in to the different ways that we view children

Miss helen Barber
Early Years Department, Solihull College & University Centre
September 20, 2019

A very good resource for students to explore, enabling them to also link to their working practice, through exploring the relevant case studies within the book. This publication also enables students to reflect on different perspectives in their studies. Highly recommended.

Miss Tracey Canham
Health Care and Early Years, Swindon College
May 27, 2018

Very useful and interesting.

Mrs Lisa Jayne Strachan
Society , Health & Childhood, Blackpool and the Fylde College
November 21, 2017

For instructors

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ISBN: 9781526425775

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ISBN: 9781473989375
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ISBN: 9781473989368
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