CHILDHOOD THROUGH THE LENS OF SOCIAL PEDAGOGY
JITKA LORENZOVA
Abstract:
The article aims to analyze the status of childhood in today's society as it relates to the emancipatory goals of social pedagogy. Among the viewpoints to understand the status of childhood is the concept of social representation. Childhood is conceptualized in the study as a transversal topic that transcends many fields and is analyzed from a multidisciplinary perspective. Social representation is characterized in the text as a tool to construct analysis of social realities, while social pedagogy is characterized as an emancipatory practice. The conflict between dominant and alternative social representations of childhood is also explored, elaborating on the ambivalent and diffuse images of childhood in neoliberal society. The conclusions of this analysis show that the unclear status of childhood in society casts doubt of the paradigm of children's rights, that ostensibly being the official approach to childhood on the policy side in democratic societies. This ambivalence then prevents children's rights from being a central approach to the children's world in the field of social pedagogy. The article is a theoretical study based on the analysis of specialist sources and their interpretations; it uses descriptive, analytical and hermeneutic-interpretative methods.
Keywords:
Childhood, child welfare, children's rights, socialization, social pedagogy, social politics, social representation, social reality.
DOI: 10.52950/SS.2017.6.1.005
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APA citation:
JITKA LORENZOVA (2017). CHILDHOOD THROUGH THE LENS OF SOCIAL PEDAGOGY. International Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. VI(1), pp. 53-70. , DOI: 10.52950/SS.2017.6.1.005
Data:
Received: 14 Dec 2016
Revised: 2 Feb 2017
Accepted: 6 Mar 2017
Published: 20 Mar 2017
Copyright © 2017, Jitka Lorenzova et al, jitka.lorenzova@post.cz