Childhood and Youth Studies

Childhood and Youth Studies publishes theoretically informed empirical research, conceptual analyses of key issues, and critical discussions of important social and political debates affecting children and young people’s lives. We encourage the submission of papers that build upon and contribute to any of the key fields in the social sciences that focus on these issues; this includes, but is not limited to, childhood studies, children’s geographies, children and society, and youth studies, and any topics informed by diverse fields, including educational research, social work, sociology and social policy, socio-legal studies, social and cultural geographies, political studies, youth transitions studies, and feminist youth research. We encourage contributors to clearly locate their papers within these or other related fields, and ensure that their work speaks to a broader social science audience.

We are sensitive to the changing social, economic and political climate that young people are growing up in, and are eager to encourage contributions from social science fields that are familiar with debates in childhood and youth studies, as well as those that have been more resistant to including the voices of children and young people.

We encourage the submission of papers in which children and/or young people are the primary focus of research and have been meaningfully engaged with (rather than being an add-on to a project focusing on a different set of issues), and encourage critical engagement with the literature rather than papers that report on evaluation work only. We are open to all methodological approaches and techniques. We aim to address any issues relevant to the lives of children and young people.

The rationale of this section is to encourage contributors to share new and original research findings or to provide critical commentary on social, cultural, political and economic issues affecting children and young people’s lives.