Childhood events: theoretical and methodological foundations for a sociological study

This study argues for identifying the category of “event” in sociological science and distinguishes this concept from other related ones: social fact, action, process, and social time. The specificity of the event as a unit of analysis is described in terms of the disciplinary boundaries of philosophy, social history, cognitive and clinical psychology, criminology, and other fields. The characteristics of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying childhood events are defined, and a definition is proposed: a set of actions of the social environment, strategies of growing up, and initiative episodes in the child’s own life course. The sequence of events, which the authors term “eventfulness,” is important as an analytical construct for assessing socialization processes in specific social groups and providing evidence of generational changes and societal transformations overall. Based on the thesis held by contemporary theorists of science that operationalization is an important part of theorizing, the foundations for analyzing a childhood event are identified: the level of the event; the presence of goal-setting; the sphere of life; the vector of the event; the temporal aspect; and the “altitude of departure,” [or another term] among others. Arguments are presented for recognizing the most important of these as: the degree of agency and autonomy of children and the presence of demonstrated profound consequences for adult life. At the level of sociological methodology, the positions of V. I. Ilyin on distinguishing three theoretical and methodological foundations (structuralist, subjectivist, and activity-constructivist) are used. Cases of research practices are outlined, focusing on understanding what methodology, what methods, and what sample are used to study which childhood events. To substantiate some of the propositions developed in the article, the authors refer to data that demonstrate the importance of a mixed-methods strategy in researching childhood events and eventfulness. It is precisely the intersection of quantitative and qualitative approaches that is a priority in childhood research, as it allows for the inclusion of the entire “palette” of diverse stable practices in the analysis and the capturing of new phenomena in Russian childhood. It is concluded that the concept of childhood events and eventfulness can become valuable for studying and achieving a deeper understanding of social phenomena and processes, the structure of social reality, and its segmentation and differentiation.