About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about the idea that childhood is universal (i.e. a feature of all human societies both past and present) and the extent to which inequalities organise and structure childhood and children's experiences, focusing in particular on: (i) the view among some academics and theorists that childhood is socially constructed and not a universal category, and the extent to which this is a plausible position; (ii) the difficulty of coming up with a clear definition of 'childhood' – does (e.g.) a seventeen-year-old really belong in the same category of person as (e.g.) a two-year-old?; (iii) the intersectionality of childhood with other identities, e.g. gender, race, nationality, citizenship-status, etc. and the extent to which this shapes one's experience of childhood; (iv) the extent to which inequalities produce one's identity; (v) the positive aspects of inequality – the production of a sense of community, creativity and culture; and (vi) the belief within children's studies of the multiplicity of potential childhood experiences.

About the lecturer

Professor Karen Wells is Professor of Human Geography at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research is focused on childhood studies, particularly the formation of childhood and the impact of inequality on children’s lives. She is author of The Visual Cultures of Childhood (2020), Childhood Studies: Making Young Subjects (2017), and Childhood in Global Perspective (2014).