What is it about?
I reexamine a research I made a decade ago about French working-class children. It was based on a methodology inspired by Bourdieu's work but I now look at it with a critical distance partly nurtured by Childhood studies. It helps understand the specific assumptions regarding children and childhood in both traditions
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Why is it important?
The article shows that the methodology and results of Childhood studies are more specific and culturally grounded in the Anglosphere than is usually assumed. Conversely, it shows that there is still a denial regarding the meaning of childhood as part of the social structure in the French tradition stemming from Bourdieu.
Perspectives
The text is unusual in its form as it is more reflexive and personal than most sociological articles are: it echoes an intellectual crisis I underwent after the research in question. However, it is grounded in objective facts: methodological protocols, representatives texts from each tradition etc. It happened that I crossed borders without realizing it, somehow losing my (scientific) way. It went with a sense of bewilderment but, in the end, it was quite enlightening. I hope this article might contribute to a more vivid discussion within different regions of social sciences regarding childhood.
Camille Salgues
Sun Yat-Sen University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Bourdieu without childhood: Methods and theoretical postulates of a study on French working-class children, Childhood, September 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0907568217732120.
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