Infrastructures of Childhood - a Trans-Organizational Approach

Abstract

This article deals with the theoretical state of the institution as a key concept in Childhood Studies. There is a broad consensus within Childhood Studies to understand ``childhood as an institution'', which is in turn defined through ``institutions of childhood''. Based on critical acknowledgement of this premise, reference is made to Transnational Studies and a ``methodological institutionalism'', which we believe derives from this position for Childhood Studies. In contrast, we argue for a transorganisational approach, which values everyday practices of organization as constitutive for a welfare perspective in Childhood Studies. Our goal was to derive an analytical concept for Childhood Studies based on the idea of infrastructure and which pays credit to recent developments of welfare society as well as the resulting concepts of welfare pluralism and welfare mix. Socialisation theory and the concept of transitions help to develop a transorganisational approach to institutionalised childhoods.