'Childhood' is united by a set of common and shared experiences, yet at the same time fragmented by children's everyday lives. While the media presents us with a wealth of contradictory and contrasting images of children, the laws and policies that govern children's lives do not take account of these diversities and the different experiences of 'childhood' that children may have. This important book explores the tension between the changes and continuities of childhood across time and space, examining the relationship between the social construction of childhood and social policy. Drawing on social theory, social policy and the empirical findings of social science research, the authors demonstrate how cultural influences and the law work to construct childhood, or at the very least, constrain what children do. They pose a series of challenges to traditional understandings of children and childhood, and go on to offer a new perspective -- the cultural politics of childhood. Case Studies are used in the second part of the book to provide empirical illustrations of how the cultural politics of childhood unravels for children themselves in the context of contemporary British society. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, Constructing Childhood provides an incisive theoretical account of childhood that is grounded in substantive areas of children's lives such as health, education, crime and the family. This timely and engaging book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology, social policy, socio-legal studies and childhood studies.

Book jacket.