Allison James - Key Concepts in Childhood Studies

Allison Jamesis Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth at the University of Sheffield. She is also Professor II at the Norwegian Centre of Child Research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. Allison James has worked in the sociology/anthropology of childhood since the late 1970s and has helped pioneer the theoretical and methodological approaches to research with children which are central to childhood studies. Her work focuses on children as social actors and her empirical research has included exploring children's language and culture in relation to theories of socialisation, children's attitudes towards sickness and bodily difference and children's experiences of everyday life at home and at school. Recent funded research has examined children's perceptions of hospital space and children as participants in family food practices. Currently, she is developing a child-centred approach to understanding socialisation. Key publications include: Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood (1990/1997). Basingstoke: Falmer (with A. Prout); Theorising Childhood (1998). Cambridge: Polity (with C. Jenks and A. Prout); Research with Children (2000). London: Falmer (with Pia Christensen); Constructing Childhood: Theory, Policy and Social Practice (2004). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (with A.L. James); Children, Food and Identity (2009). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (with A.T. Kjrholt and V. Tingstad).Adrian Jamesis Emeritus Professor of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Sheffield. He trained and practised as a probation officer and was subsequently extensively involved in their training. After becoming an academic in 1978, he researched and published widely in the field of socio-legal studies, including the completion of two major ESRC-funded projects on child welfare and divorce. Appointed as Professor of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Bradford in 1998, he became Professor of Social Work at the University of Sheffield in September 2004, during which time he was also Professor II at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. He was a Special Adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on the Lord Chancellor's Department when it scrutinised the work of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) in 200203. His recent books include: Constructing Childhood: Theory, Policy and Social Practice (2004). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (with Allison James); The Child Protection Handbook (3rd edn) (2007). London/Edinburgh: Elsevier/Ballire-Tindall (with K. Wilson): and European Childhoods: Cultures, Politics and Childhoods in Europe (2008). Basingstoke: Palgrave (with Allison James). The first edition of Key Concepts in Childhood Studies (also with Allison James) was published by Sage in 2008.