"Towards a Working Definition and Application of Social Age in International Development Studies"

Abstract

An emerging body of literature in childhood studies addresses the socially constructed nature of age that varies across time and place. However, despite the robustness of existing theory, few practitioners working in development contexts, where children and young people make up a large percentage of the population, consistently distinguish between biological facts of human development and the social meanings ascribed to different stages in the life cycle. Drawing on feminist theory and practical experiences of 'gender mainstreaming' in development studies, this article proposes and applies a working definition of 'social age' to supplement the prevailing focus on chronological age, embodied in legal definitions o f 'the child'.