Childhood studies or children's studies (CS) is a multidisciplinary field that seeks to understand the experience of childhood, both historically and in the contemporary world. CS views childhood as "a complex social phenomenon" with an emphasis on children's agency as social actors, and acknowledges that childhood is socially constructed as the concept of childhood is not universal. CS draws on scholarship in the social sciences (specifically anthropology, economics, history, and sociology), the humanities (especially literature, religion, philosophy, and the fine arts), and the behavioral sciences (with an emphasis on psychology).
History
Founding
The interdisciplinary field of children's studies was founded at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York in the fall of 1991. Its aim was to promote a unified approach to the study of children and youth across the arts, humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, medicine, and law. This new concept emphasized an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach to studying children aged 0 to 18 years old. The concept of CS was introduced and coined in contradistinction to the Child Study Movement initiated by Stanley Hall at the turn of the 20th century, which focuses on child psychology and development.
After Brooklyn College initiated this field in 1991, other academic institutions established children's studies programs, and in subsequent years the concept of childhood studies and the field of children's studies emerged. Today there are children's studies and childhood studies programs at numerous academic institutions worldwide.
Brooklyn College also initiated the establishment of the "Sociology of Children." In August 1991 Gertrud Lenzer wrote an article titled "Is There Sufficient Interest to Establish a Sociology of Children?" in the ASA journal Footnotes. ASA President-Elect James S. Coleman wrote as an addendum to this article "I believe that the call for increased attention to the sociology of children is well-placed, and it may be that a new section of the ASA is the best way to do that." The new section within the American Sociological Association was officially established in 1992.
There is a conceptual confusion that now exists between Children's Studies and Childhood Studies. This stems from the small time frame during which Brooklyn College established the "Sociology of Children" in America. European colleagues established the similarly named but fundamentally different "Sociology of Childhood" in Europe.
Whereas the field of "childhood studies" claims its major focus is "to understand childhood", the field of children's studies claims that children must be viewed in their fullness as human beings in a generational and social class, with civil, political, social, economic and cultural dimensions. In this wider and encompassing context, the study of "childhood" is viewed as a subfield of children's studies. The human rights of children represent a major framework for the interdisciplinary field of children's studies.
Academic growth, interdisciplinary subfields
In the 1990s, Northumbria University was one of the first to offer a degree in childhood studies in the UK. Rutgers University-Camden developed the first Childhood Studies Department in the United States to award degrees from BA through Ph.D. This is a multi-disciplinary department in which Ph.D. students study a range of methodologies to explore cultural constructions of childhood. In the United States, there are now dozens of children/childhood "modules", minors, or concentrations available within degree programs. There are also BA and master's programs across the globe.
Rutgers University-Camden also operates The Center for Children's and Childhood Studies, the Rutgers University Press Book Series in Childhood Studies, and The Exploring Childhood Studies listserve, an online community of over 1500 academics and practitioners studying children and childhood in every discipline and around the world. The Children's Studies Center for Research, Policy, and Public Service was established at Brooklyn College in 1997. In 2011, the title of the children's studies program at Brooklyn College was officially changed to "Children and Youth Studies". Childhood, a major international journal in the field, was established in 1993. The Palgrave Handbook of Childhood Studies, edited by Jens Qvortrup, William Corsaro, and Michael-Sebastian Honig was published in 2009.