The Eventfulness of Childhood: the Question of Empirical Evidence of the Generations Theory

The Eventfulness of Childhood: the Question of Empirical Evidence of the Generations Theory


Mayorova-Shcheglova S.N.

Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Prof., Moscow State Psychological and Pedagogical University, Moscow, Russia sheglova-s@yandex.ru

Kolosova E.A.

Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Assoc. Prof., Department of Theory and History of Sociology, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia the_shmiga@mail.ru

Gubanova A.Yu.

Cand. Sci. (Soc.), Leading Researcher of Department of Sociology, Psychology and Pedagogy of Children’s Reading, Russian State Children’s Library, Moscow, Russia. alexandra.gubanova@gmail.com

ID of the Article:


For citation:

Mayorova-Shcheglova S.N., Kolosova E.A., Gubanova A.Yu. The Eventfulness of Childhood: the Question of Empirical Evidence of the Generations Theory. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2020. No 3. P. 3-15




Abstract

The article describes the features of the childhood events of two conditional generations of young people – Y and Z. In methodological terms, the novelty lies in the substantiation of the new concept “event of a child’s life” – an event in everyday life that stands out in the stream of life as a necessary means of growing up, and is performed by the child, and not by adults towards him/her. The rationale for the new concept /notion of “an event of child’s life” is given – the event of everyday life, which is highlighted in the stream of life as a necessary means of growing up, and is committed by the child, and not by adults. The article reveals the methodological possibilities of studying the eventfulness of growing up with the help of the author’s “Event-Generation Z” method. Limited application of the modern theory of XYZ generation is proved: the difficulty of a clear boundary between the generations at the turn of the century. The use of a new Russian conditional generation Z in childhood has been established to use a different format for the practices used in information and communication technologies, bodily practices, social activity. It has been proved that the age of adulthood events is related to the place of residence, the socio-economic situation of the family, and composition of the family. The coincidence of the chronology of events and the average age of the subjective termination of childhood is recorded. Noted are the facts of narrowing the space of children’s self-dependence and the “extension of childhood” of separate groups, the paradoxes of the events of childhood as not consistent, not logical from the point of view of the development and upbringing of children.


Keywords
generation; childhood; youth; event; childhood event; eventfulness; sociology of childhood; maturity
Content No 3, 2020