The heart of this book is the translation of The Life Space of the Urban Child, written in 1935 by Martha and Hans Heinrich Muchow. Life Space provides a fresh look at children as actors and how they absorb their city environments. It uses an empirical base connected with theories about the worlds in which children live. The first section provides historical background on Muchow's study and the author. The second section presents the translation of the Life Space study, as well as comments from an environmental psychologist's perspective. The third section reviews the study's theoretical foundations, including the concept of "critical personalism," the perspectives of phenomenology, and the notion of Umwelt (environment). The last section addresses various lines of research developed from the Life Space study, including Muchow's work in describing children in urban environments, methodological approaches, and the significance of space in social science and educational contexts. The manner in which Martha Muchow conducted her studies is itself of note. She obtained access to the children in their environments and combined observation with cartographies and essays produced by the children. This approach was new at the time and continues to inspire researchers today. This volume is the latest work in Transaction's History and Theory of Psychology series.

By regarding children as actors and conducting empirical research on children’s agency, Childhood Studies have gained significant influence on a wide range of different academic disciplines. This has made agency one of the key concepts of Childhood Studies, with articles on the subject featured in handbooks and encyclopaedias. Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood is the first collection devoted to the central concept of agency in Childhood Studies. With contributions from experts in the field, the chapters cover theoretical, practical, historical, transnational and institutional dimensions of agency, rekindling discussion and introducing fundamental and contemporary sociological perspectives to the field of research. Particular attention is paid to connecting agency in the social sciences with Childhood Studies, considering both the theoretical foundations and the practice of research into agency. Empirical case studies are also explored, which focus upon child protection, schools and childcare at a variety of institutions worldwide. This book is an essential reference for students and scholars of Childhood Studies, and is also relevant to Sociology, Social Work, Education, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Geography. Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For a long time, scientific knowledge on children and childhood was almost exclusively produced by educationalists and developmental psychologists. In recent years, however, a new approach originating in Europe was added: childhood sociology. This book introduces this approach by presenting a collection of essays from various European countries: France, Germany, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Denmark. The articles cover a wide range of methodologies as well as subject areas in the field of childhood sociology, giving a picture of the life situation of contemporary children in Europe and arguing how childhood researchers can come to terms with new trends and facts of (post-)modern childhood.

This engaging book, written with the help of extensive scholarship and leading scholars, introduces learners to twenty-four different theorists and compares and contrasts their theories on how we develop as individuals.Emphasizing the theories that follow and build upon the developmental tradition established by Rousseau, this text also covers theories in the environmental/learning tradition.For individuals interested in the psychology of child development.

Comprehensive handbook providing an overview of the theories, research and applications critical to Environmental Psychology. It aims to define the ongoing revolution in thinking about how the environment and psychology interact.