Different Childhoods: Non/Normative Development and Transgressive Trajectories

Opens up new avenues for exploring children’s development as contextual, provisional and locally produced, rather than a unitary, universal and consistent process. This edited collection frames a critical exploration of the trajectory against which children are seen to be ‘different’ within three key themes: deconstructing ‘developmental tasks’, locating development and the limits of childhood.

Examining the particular kinds of ‘transgressive’ development, contributors discuss instances of ‘difference’ including migration, work, assumptions of vulnerability, trans childhoods, friendships and involvement in crime. Including both empirical and theoretical discussions, the book builds on existing debates as part of the interrogation of ‘different childhoods’.

This book provides essential reading for students wishing to explore notions of development while also being of interest to both academics and practitioners working across a broad area of disciplines such as developmental psychology, sociology, childhood studies and critical criminology.