William A. Corsaro was Robert H. Shaffer Class of 1967 Endowed Chair and is now

Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington,

where he won the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1988. He was the first

recipient of the Distinguished Career Award for the Section on Children and Youth of

the American Sociological Association in 2013. He taught courses on the sociology of

childhood, childhood in contemporary society, and ethnographic research methods.

His primary research interests are the sociology of childhood, children's peer cultures,

the sociology of education, and ethnographic research methods. Corsaro is the author of

Friendship and Peer Culture in the Early Years (1985), author of "We're Friends, Right?" Inside

Kids' Culture (2003), and coauthor with Luisa Molinari of I Compagni: Understanding

Children's Transition From Preschool to Elementary School (2005). He is the coeditor

with Jens Qvortrup and Michael-Sebastian Honig (2009) of The Palgrave Handbook of

Childhood Studies. Corsaro was a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow in Bologna, Italy, in

1983-1984 and a Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellow in Trondheim, Norway, in 2003.

He received an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University, Sweden, in 2016 and was

recipient of the Cooley-Mead Award from the Social Psychology Section of the American

Sociological Association in 2019.

PART ONE: THE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF CHILDHOOD
1. Social Theories of Childhood
Sociology's Rediscovery of Childhood
Traditional Theories: Socialization
Interpretive Reproduction: Children Collectively Participate in Society
Language and Cultural Routines
From Individual Progression to Collective Reproductions
2. The Structure of Childhood and Children's Interpretive Reproductions
Assumptions of the Structural Perspective
Childhood, Children's Activities, and Interpretive Reproduction in Peer Culture
3. Studying Children and Childhood
Macrolevel Methods
Microlevel Methods
Nontraditional Methods in Studying Children
Ethical Issues in Researching Children's Lives
PART TWO: CHILDREN, CHILDHOOD, AND FAMILIES IN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT
4. Historical Views of Childhood and Children
Philippe Ariès's Centuries of Childhood
The Debate Regarding Grand-Stage Theories of the Family and Childhood
The New History of Childhood
5. Social Change, Families, and Children
Examining Changes in Families From the Children's Perspective
Children's Everyday Lives in Families
The Effects of Recent Socioeconomic Changes on Families, Children, and Childhood in Western Societies
The Effects of Recent Socioeconomic Changes on Children and Childhood in Developing Societies
PART THREE: CHILDREN'S CULTURES
6. Children's Peer Cultures and Interpretive Reproduction
Examining Peer Culture From Children's Perspective
Central Importance of Peer Culture in Interpretive Reproduction
Symbolic Aspects of Children's Cultures
Material Aspects of Children's Cultures
Children, Parents, and Consumer Culture
7. Sharing and Control in Initial Peer Cultures
Central Themes in Children's Initial Peer Cultures
Friendship, Sharing, and Social Participation
Autonomy and Control in Peer Culture
8. Conflict and Differentiation in the Initial Peer Culture
Conflict and Peer Relations
Social Differentiation in Initial Peer Cultures
9. Preadolescent Peer Cultures
Peer Cultures in Preadolescence
Friendship Processes in Preadolescent Peer Cultures
Autonomy and Identity in Preadolescent Peer Cultures
Disputes, Conflict, Friendships, and Gender
Generation M: Electronic Media in the Lives of Preadolescents and Adolescents
Effects and Process of Media Use in the Lives of Preadolescents and Adolescents
PART FOUR: CHILDREN, SOCIAL PROBLEMS, AND THE FUTURE OF CHILDHOOD
10. Children, Social Problems, and the Family
Changing Family Structures and Children's Lives
Work, Families, and Childhood
Divorce and Its Effects on Children
11. Children, Social Problems, and Society
Poverty and the Quality of Children's Lives
Teen Pregnancy and Nonmarital Births
Violence, Victimization, and the Loss of Childhood
The Profound and Inspiring Resilience of Children and Youth in Highly Challenging Life Circumstances
12. The Future of Childhood
The Major Challenges
Some More Modest Proposals to Enrich Children's Lives
Conclusion