Global Studies of Childhood Cover

CALL FOR PAPERS – Special Issue of Global Studies of Childhood
Learning about emotion: cultural and family contexts of emotion socialization
Guest Editor: KATHERINE KITZMANN, University of Memphis, USA

The concept of emotion is contested and problematic and has a range of theoretical and practical implications across a variety of disciplinary fields. Parents, families, societies, communities and media impact in teaching children about emotions and in shaping children’s emotional competence or otherwise. This process of ‘emotion socialization’ unfolds in daily life, as children encounter examples of different ways of expressing and understanding emotion, that incorporate different forms in a variety of modalities, for example via talking through (or ignoring) specific examples of emotions and their manifested behaviours, and actions that demonstrate a supportive or non-supportive response to children’s emotional experiences and expressions.

This special journal issue of Global Studies of Childhood (www.wwwords.co.uk/GSCH) will focus on the ways in which emotion is manifested and responded to in different cultures. It will consider whether different discourses of childhood validate some expressions of emotion and constrain, problematize and pathologize others. We are interested in how some cultural practices associated with teaching and learning and performatively producing emotion are maintained and contested by children from a variety of different cultures. This might also consider the ways in which emotion is represented in cultural texts and how cultural knowledges, expectations and practices of emotions change across contexts, for example in homes, schools, public places or in community ceremonies. Of interest too, are the roles played by parents, families and peers in interpreting, guiding, responding to and shaping children’s emotional experiences and expressions. An important aspect of these discussions will be a consideration of the role of the ‘expert’ in interpreting and managing childhood emotions and the inculcation of what are deemed to be appropriate emotional behaviours that aim to prepare children to be socially competent in a range of cultural contexts.

Global Studies of Childhood invites papers from a range of disciplines to contribute to this critical discussion. Please send abstracts to Katherine Kitzmann: k.kitzmann@memphis.edu.

TIMELINE
August – call for papers
September 15 2011 – Extended abstract to Editor (500 to 1000 words)
September 30 2011 – Advice regarding invitation to submit full paper
November 30 2011 – Full Paper submission
December 31 2011 – Feedback to authors
February 1 2012 – Final version of paper to editor
March 2012 – publication of special edition – with proofs for correction mid-March

CFP – Special Issue of Global Studies of Childhood: Cultural and Family Contexts of Emotion Socialization