Child Figures in the Sociology of Childhood in Portugal

Abstract

The sociology of childhood is a discipline that was born in Portugal two decades ago, since the publication of the first work that claimed to belong to this scientific area. As a discipline of the social sciences, it reflects the specificities of the social formation where it resides, as well as that of the language in which it is mostly expressed. Despite its strong articulation with the sociology of childhood developed in other linguistic universes, the theoretical work of these two decades is still defined by thematic, theoretical and methodological specificities. Rather than to present the work that has been carried out in this field of research, or to survey its productions, this article is concerned with pointing out the "child figures", that is, the constructs through which children are thought. These “figures” are the result of the theoretical work and are articulated with the normative production about children, and have an impact on policy making and on social and professional practices.