A Historical Sociology of Childhood: Developmental Thinking, Categorization and Graphic Visualization

by André Turmel

• ISBN13: 9780521879774
• ISBN10: 0521879779
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

What constitutes a 'normal' child? Throughout the nineteenth century public health and paediatrics played a leading role in the image and conception of children. By the twentieth century psychology had moved to the forefront, transforming our thinking and understanding. Andrè Turmel investigates these transformations both from the perspective of the scientific observation of children (public hygiene, paediatrics, psychology and education) and from a public policy standpoint (child welfare, health policy, education and compulsory schooling). Using detailed historical accounts from Britain, the USA and France, Turmel studies how historical sequential development and statistical reasoning have led to a concept of what constitutes a 'normal' child and resulted in a form of standardization by which we monitor children. He shows how western society has become a child-centred culture and asks whether we continue to base parenting and teaching on a view of children that is no longer appropriate.

Author Biography

Andre Turmel is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Universite Laval

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
Children in the collective	p. 16
Sociology's children	p. 17
Unfolding the black box	p. 27
The social: unity and heterogeneity	p. 38
Translation, mediation and circulation	p. 45
Childhood, measurement and standardization	p. 58
Graphs, charts and tabulations: the textual inscription of children	p. 66
Inscription and embodiment	p. 67
The statement	p. 77
Observing and recording	p. 84
The scientific forms of child observation	p. 97
Social technologies: regulation and resistance	p. 115
Technology and visualization	p. 116
The charts	p. 123
Record forms	p. 142
Well-child conference and periodic MD exams for healthy children	p. 154
Intelligence testing	p. 161
Child-guidance clinic	p. 173
The normal child: translation and circulation	p. 182
The social forms of normalcy	p. 183
Normal as average	p. 197
Normal as healthy	p. 217
Normal as acceptable	p. 235
Developmental thinking as a cognitive form	p. 248
The rise of developmental thinking	p. 250
The pattern of sequential developmental	p. 265
The critique of developmental thinking	p. 279
Development as a cognitive form and beyond	p. 288
Conclusion	p. 303
Appendix	p. 314
Bibliography	p. 315
Index	p. 339
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