Childhood, Agency, and Fantasy: Walking in Other Worlds

(Paperback)

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Description

Joining the emergent interdisciplinary investment in bridging the social sciences and the humanities, Childhood, Agency, and Fantasy: Walking in Other Worlds explores linkages between childrens agency and fantasy. Fantasy as an integral aspect of childhood and as a genre allows for childrens spectacular dreams and hopeful realities. Friendship, family, identity, loyalty, belongingness, citizenry, and emotionality are central concepts explored in chapters that are anchored by humanities texts of television, film, and literature, but also by social science qualitative methods of participant observation and interviews. Fantasy has the capacity to be a revolutionary change agent that in its modernity can creatively reflect, critique, or reimagine the social, political, and cultural norms of our world. Such promise is also found to be true of childrens agency, wherein childrens beings and becomings, rooted in childhoods freedoms and constraints, result in a range of outcomes. In the endeavor to broaden theory and research on childrens agency, fantasy becomes a point of possibility with its expanding subjectivities, far-reaching terrain, and spirit of adventure.

Reviews

As fantasy has become a defining force in childrens lives, through their interaction with film, novels, television, social media, games, and play, it is crucial that scholars evaluate fantasy through the lens of childhood studies. Here, contributors tackle the intersection of fantasy, childhood, and agency. Since children are quite literally the future, it matters what they are consuming, including what kinds of messages they are receiving about the potential for agency over their own lives and futures. Castro assembles a compelling, diverse array of themes and disciplinary perspectives. Recommended.

* Choice *

Working through particular cases across real life and fiction, this volume explores fantasy as a modality of childrens agency. It is a rich, insightful and significant contribution to a growing field of study. A joy to read.

-- David Oswell, Professor in Sociology and Pro-Warden Research & Enterprise, Goldsmiths University of London. Author of The Agency of Children: From Family to Global Human Rights.

Anyone interested in childhood studies and the inner lives of children will appreciate this book because it provides fresh ways of looking at the everyday. The variety of subjects in this edited volume transport readers to the world of childrens cultures through fantasy and popular culture, highlighting spaces for agency. The authors will make you think differently about the way we approach children and perhaps even prompt you to revisit your own childhood.

-- Mary L. Churchill, Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Community Engagement, Boston University; creator of University of Venus and coauthor of When Colleges Close: Leading in a Time of Crisis

Author Bio

Ingrid E. Castro is professor of sociology and chair of the Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Department at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.