Urban childhood in the social sciences: problems and methodological challenges

Abstract:

This text presents the dossier “Urban childhood in social science: problems and methodologic challenges”. It aims to situate the main questions which characterizes the works on the relation between childhood and city. In the first part, we indicate how urban studies (Seixas 2003; Harvey 2008; Fernandez Martorell 2009) and childhood studies (Balagopalan 2019; Castro Seixas 2022; Sarmento 2018) have interfaces in the analysis of some topics: the right for the city; appropriation of the public space and children participation in the city; socio-territorial inequality and childhood, and the children as political actors in the city. In the second part, we suggest a brief systematization of articles, dialoguing with Brazilian, Spanish, Argentinean, and British researchers. It points out interdisciplinarity and denouncements. We seek to collaborate in the contemporary debates about the multiple urban childhood built in different spaces in the city and in different city in the world, highlighting methodological, epistemological, and ethical challenges.

Keywords:
Childhood studies; Urban studies; Social sciences