Theories of Socialization and the New Paradigm for Social Studies of Childhood.

Abstract

This article presents the contemporary critique, performed by the so-called new Sociology of Childhood, to the classical approaches of socialization. The studies in this new field question the traditional images of childhood, of the child and its education in West countries proposing the deconstruction of the obviousness legitimateness which are present in the traditional paradigm of childhood as "natural and universal" phase of life and of children as passive objects of socialization in an adult social order. The principle of the child-actor incites one to go from the determinist vision which places emphasis in structural factors that weigh over social action to the analysis of the capacity of action (agency) of the child; the principle of social construction of childhood questions the idea of this category simply defined by biology and starts to understand its meaning as changeable under the historic, cultural and social points of view and always subject to a negotiation process both in public and private spheres.