Vol. 15 No. 30 (2025): Teoria queer e scienze sociali: tra sfide e prospettive
Monographic Section

Un dialogo innovativo tra la nuova sociologia dell’infanzia e la teoria queer

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  • Antonella Berritto
Antonella Berritto
Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/cambio-18651

Published 2026-02-11

Keywords

  • Childhood,
  • education,
  • gender,
  • agency,
  • queer

How to Cite

Berritto, A. (2026). Un dialogo innovativo tra la nuova sociologia dell’infanzia e la teoria queer. Cambio. Rivista Sulle Trasformazioni Sociali, 15(30), 9–18. https://doi.org/10.36253/cambio-18651

Copyright (c) 2025 Antonella Berritto

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between queer theory and the new sociology of childhood, highlighting how the formation of gender identity in boys and girls, the configuration of educational spaces, and international legal frameworks can produce, influence, and in some cases challenge social norms and regimes of normativity. Through a critical review of the international literature and more recent Italian scholarship, the article offers a queer reinterpretation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, highlighting its heteronormative and protectionist aspects; an analysis of educational spaces as a mechanism that produces processes of invisibilization/hyper-visibilization for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-creative children; as well as the risks and opportunities for change. By bringing the queer perspective into dialogue with childhood studies, the paper aims to demonstrate that it is possible to bring about significant changes in the tangible and intangible spaces of childhood. In conclusion, queer childhood is proposed as an innovative lens that recognizes children as active participants and co-producers of social worlds and pluralistic forms of citizenship.

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