Professorship of Theories and Methods of Childhood Studies

Organisational unit: Section

Organisation profile

In everyday life, children are seen primarily as beings in need of education and learning who naturally lack experience and knowledge. However, this not only underestimates the practical achievements that children contribute to the maintenance of everyday order, but also hides essential aspects of the social organization of childhood.
 
In contrast, we essentially understand children as an age group characterized by social inequalities, who are assigned fewer rights, duties, and resources compared to others (primarily adults, but also older children or adolescents) – regardless of the actual contributions children perform in everyday life.
 
As a category of social inequality, childhood cannot be thought of in a homogeneous way, neither historically nor globally, but remains bound to socially varying structures of growing up. Accordingly, childhood is understood as a highly institutionalized life phase, whose definition and shaping by school, family, and expert entrepreneurships structure the objective chances for future life courses of young people, but which also make up a central element of social order in general.
 
Hence, our focus is the social organization of childhood by its respective institutions (especially professions) as well as the resulting consequences for involved groups of actors, foremost the children themselves. Our research is concerned with the degree to which children are taken into account in child protection, by the knowledge about children that is collected (or lacking) and made available and used (for example, about their experiences of violence and in the pandemic), and by the spatial-material structuring of childhoods.

  1. 2023
  2. Published

    Struggling for open awareness – Trajectories of violence against children from a sociological perspective

    Bühler-Niederberger, D. & Alberth, L., 01.02.2023, In: Children and Youth Services Review. 145, 8 p., 106769.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearch

  3. 2022
  4. Published

    Vermittlungsarbeit und Bewertungswissen: Zur Disziplinierung genuss- und distinktionsfähiger Körper in Kaffeeverkostungen

    Berli, O. & Alberth, L., 01.09.2022, In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie. 47, 3, p. 291-303 13 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  5. Published

    Forschungsethik in der Kindheitsforschung

    Joos, M. (ed.) & Alberth, L. (ed.), 17.08.2022, 1 ed. Weinheim & Basel: Beltz Juventa Verlag. 191 p. (Kindheiten )

    Research output: Books and anthologiesCollected editions and anthologiesResearch

  6. Published

    Gewalt gegen Kinder während der COVID-19-Pandemie

    Alberth, L. & Marke, V., 06.2022, Rechtshandbuch für Frauen- und Gleichstellungsbeauftragte: Recht von A-Z für Frauen- und Gleichstellungsbeauftragte in der Öffentlichen Verwaltung, in Unternehmen und in Beratungsstellen. Berghahn, S. & Schultz, U. (eds.). Hamburg: Dashöfer Verlag, Vol. 2. 32 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions in collection of commentariesTransfer

  7. Published
  8. Published
  9. Published

    Der gesellschaftliche Stellenwert der Kinder - Rhetorik und Realität

    Bühler-Niederberger, D., Alberth, L. & Hungerland, B., 2022, In: Padiatrische Praxis. 99, 1, p. 130-143 14 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearch

  10. Published

    Forschungsethik in der Kindheitsforschung - Dilemmata, Standards und Reflexionen für das Forschen über, zu und mit Kindern

    Joos, M. & Alberth, L., 2022, Forschungsethik in der Kindheitsforschung. Joos, M. & Alberth, L. (eds.). 1 ed. Basel & Weinheim: Beltz Juventa Verlag, p. 7-22 16 p. (Kindheiten).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksOtherResearch

  11. Published

    Wie geht es den Kindern in Zeiten von Corona?

    Alberth, L., 2022, In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte. 72, 13-14, p. 33-40 8 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesTransfer

  12. 2021
  13. Published

    Dissensfiktion als Element formaler Organisation. Die Bewertung wissenschaftlicher Leistungen an Hochschulen

    Alberth, L. & Wagner, G., 2021, Bewertungskulturen: Soziologie des Wertens und Bewertens. Berli, O., Nicolae, S. & Schäfer, H. (eds.). Wiesbaden: Springer VS, p. 47-70 24 p. (Soziologie des Wertens und Bewertens; vol. 4).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  14. Published
  15. 2020
  16. Published

    Materialitäten der Kindheit: Körper - Dinge - Räume

    Bollig, S. (ed.), Alberth, L. (ed.) & Schindler, L. (ed.), 11.04.2020, 1 ed. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. 270 p. (Kinder, Kindheiten und Kindheitsforschung; vol. 22)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesCollected editions and anthologiesResearch

  17. Published

    Absente Körper und institutionelle Doppelgänger. Zur kollektiven Vorbereitung altersgruppenbezogener Teilnehmerschaften

    Alberth, L., 2020, Materialitäten der Kindheit: Körper - Dinge - Räume. Bollig, S., Alberth, L. & Schindler, L. (eds.). 1 ed. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, p. 123-139 17 p. (Kinder, Kindheiten und Kindheitsforschung; vol. 22).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  18. Published

    Materialitäten der Kindheit: Analytische Sichtachsen auf Körper, Dinge und Räume

    Alberth, L., Bollig, S. & Schindler, L., 2020, Materialitäten der Kindheit: Körper - Dinge - Räume. Bollig, S., Alberth, L. & Schindler, L. (eds.). Wiesbaden: Springer VS, p. 1-14 14 p. (Kinder, Kindheiten und Kindheitsforschung; vol. 22).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch