Les Sciences de lducation

Pour lEre nouvelle

vol. 39, n 2, 2006

Childrens territories

Ludotheque a territory of childhood

Nathalie ROUCOUS

Abstract: This contribution is based on an approach from the sociology of childhood and
questions the concept of territory and its significance for this social category.
This analysis of ludotheques and the territory of games draw attention to these two
structures, which provide children who base their action on the principle of a spatial
arrangement, materials and adult companionship. These structures can be shown to offer
children the possibility of constructing their world by individual and social ownership and
open a way towards the recognition of the territories of childhood.
Key words: Sociology of childhood, Ludotheques, Play spaces, internalisation by the
actor, management of space.

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Territories of I recomposed
Aude POITTEVIN

Abstract: In reconstructed brotherhood, the presence of step-brothers, half-brothers and

quasi-brothers, co-residence is of central importance as it becomes the common factor for all
the children. The children have to invent a mode of being together. Small moments are
discovered in the shadow of parental gaze, where connivances are created, where
confidences are heard, to understand the games of relatives, gives us access to their
intimate identity. The young people studied revealed the structure of their links, a
commentary on their spaces and their usage of the descriptors of step-realtionships.
Key Words: Children, Reconstructed families, Fraternal links, Divided spaces and times,
Sociology.
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The social universe of young children

Daniel GAYET

Abstract: The objective of this article is to describe the behaviour of children between 4 and
6 years of age behave together when they temporally forget the presence of adults. This
description is based on several casual observations of games where social relations are
initiated by a characteristic imperfect playfulness. The use of swear words and scatological
jokes creates group cohesion in the face of adult rules.
The social world of young children refers to implicit and unstable contracts of ten unfairly
established by the leaders of such groups.
Key words: Relations between children, territory, childrens games, swear words, imperfect
playfulness.
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Ideological globalisation and the power of the labelling of a

vulnerable group : street children
Elisabeta STANCIULESCU

Abstract: This article attempts to unveil how it is possible that that a category supposed to
be amongst, or even the most deprived of all social groups - the street children, might take
openly a social good (in occurrence, an adult territory) whose usage is normally authorised
as under surveillance. The mechanisms of such an acquisition are inferred through data from
ethnographic observation displayed in an interpretive grid which applies to two concepts:
ideological globalisation and the child as actor. Two conclusions are drawn at the end of the
discussion :
(1) a phenomenon such as that of the street children can be modelled in a theoretical
framework focused on the globalisation of the market and of consumption. To achieve this,
the social structures of less developed countries and of the under privileged groups are
introduced into the equation by the ideologies generated from externalised ideologies such
as Christianity, communism, and certain philosophical and scientific work.
(2) If this hypothesis is validated, the management of such a phenomenon could work on the
ideological foundations of contemporary society and, most importantly, developing more
consciously the localisation of cosmopolitan ideologies which are more generous than they
might appear.
Key words: globalisation, ideology, power, vulnerable groups, child as actor.
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Children as screenwriters, children as social actors: meeting of two

perspectives on the playground
Julie DELALANDE et Claire SIMON

Abstract: Julie Delalande, an ethnologist and author of La cour de rcration, contribution

une anthropologie de lenfance (Rennes, PUR, 2001), met Claire Simon the director of the
documentary Rcrations (Les Films dIci, ARTE France, 1992). This documentary shows
children between three and six years old in a playground who are engaged in two
approaches of children in an cole maternelle.
These children are both part of the same sense that they are living out an important moment
of their existence, in the playground. They discuss the delicacy of taking ownership of this
experience under, in the childrens eyes, of strongly dominant adults. Only the recognition of
those adults who have been seen to allow access to the childrens world allows this to take
place. The children at the school learn to become actors in order to leave the school through
social motivation. Although distanced from the educational process, here they are the
auteurs of their own screenplay.
Key words: children as actors, play, ethnology, cinema, cole maternelle.