Sociology of childhood evolution: in the world and in Ukraine

The sociology of childhood, as a separate branch of sociology, emerged about forty years ago. Until then, children and childhood were considered only within the framework of the sociology of family or the sociology of age. In the article, I consider the following questions: what exactly led to the emergence of a new field? How and under the influence of what changed the traditional attitude of social science to children and childhood during the twentieth century. What is the New sociology of childhood and Childhood Studies and how do the views of their proponents differ from traditional ones? What principles unite researchers of the new sociology of childhood and how is the sociology of childhood developing in Ukraine?The childhood phenomenon, despite all the achievements and development of social sciences, is still difficult to define. During the twentieth century, the perception of childhood and the attitude of researchers toward children changed. Sociologists of childhood no longer perceive children as passive, innocent, firmly embedded in the family, and “non-yet-adults” whose main goal is to properly socialize. Now, according to sociologists, children are perceived as active and unique social actors that need to be studied intersectionally, in the context of gender, class, ethnicity, and outside the family. The perception of the child has changed – from a usual future adult in the 1960s to a real member of society that can influence the world of adults in the 1980s. All this happened due to the influence of interactionists schools in sociology, researchers of subcultures and age groups, as well as social movements for women’s rights and civil rights. The new sociology of childhood and childhood studies has set new goals – to explore children’s practices as the activities of socially active agents, using methods that take into account age characteristics, but do not reduce children’s ability to reflect and formulate their own point of view. During the last 40 years, the followers of the new paradigm actively created a new scientific community and tried to change the attitude towards children and childhood not only within the social sciences but also outside of it. They partially succeeded, but many of the announced goals remained unfulfilled. Ukraine and Ukrainian researchers of childhood are taking the first confident steps in this field. We need more translations of world classics into Ukrainian language, as well as the results of original Ukrainian researchers into English. As well as we need more students enrolled in relevant programs and funding for the National Center for Childhood Studies.