Agency

Abstract

In exploring the idea of children’s agency this chapter introduces what has, in many ways, been one of the most important theoretical developments in the recent history of childhood studies — the shift to seeing children as social actors; a changed perception that dates from the 1970s. This entails, as we shall discover during the course of this chapter, a view of children as people worthy of study ‘in their own right and not just as receptacles of adult teaching’ (Hardman, 1973, 87), and is a change in perception that has, in turn, placed considerable emphasis on children’s role as social agents. That is to say, as Mayall (2002) points out, children are now seen as people who, through their individual actions, can make a difference ‘to a relationship, a decision, to the workings of a set of social assumptions or constraints’ (2002, 21). As this chapter explores, what this focus on children’s agency has achieved, therefore, is a reconceptualization not only of what ‘childhood’ is, but also of the ways in which children themselves can be understood as active participants in society. It is an important shift in thinking that has ramifications beyond childhood studies, however, since it reflects and refracts the everyday experiences of children in communities across the world. It is the aim of this chapter, therefore, to not only chart the historical development and significance of this changing epistemology within the social sciences, but also to underscore its wider social political significance for children’s own experiences.