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CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH STUDIES INTEREST GROUP (NEIJ)
 
The Childhood and Youth Studies Interest Group has been set up by Ângela Nunes e Lorenzo Bordonaro to pursue research at the CRIA (Centre for Research in Anthropology).It is intended to be a forum for debate and a network for sharing theoretic and practical information, research and teaching materials. The idea is to create visibility for this area of study in Portugal, encourage scientific research and production, foster exchanges between professionals and students and participate in the international debate in this field.
Our main goals are therefore to contribute to the epistemological debate on childhood and youth in the social sciences, with special focus on the specific theoretic and methodological contribution of anthropology, and to foster ethnographic, participative research methods in the study of children and young people, in accordance with the advances made by sociology and anthropology in recent decades.
However, the Group does not wish to identify the study of children and young people as a delimited field of research and feels that it is essential to foster dialogue with researchers in other areas and with anthropologists who are conducting research on different issues and promote partnerships in the same field with other institutions. In addition, we recognise that, as they are emblematic of the tension between structure and agency, between the recognition of rights and individual independence, the study of children and young people is important in the broader ambit of anthropological theory and practice and for social sciences as a whole.
We are inviting to participate in the Group’s activities researchers at all levels and from all disciplinary areas whose work is related to the following, among others:
• child and youth cultures;
• analysis of intra- and inter-generation relations;
• cultural policies on childhood, youth and the family;
• analysis of school and non-school educational settings;
• analysis of public policies and social intervention with children, young people and their households
• socio-historical (re)construction of the transformations of the concepts of children and childhood, young people and youth
• methodology and epistemology in this research area

Practical goals
- Online exchange (mailing list and blog) of information about national and international events, projects, competitions and new publications
- Online posting (mailing list and blog) of information on available training in this area in Portugal and abroad
- Online posting (mailing list and blog) of documents and resources theoretically, methodologically and deontologically relevant to this area
- Encouragement of scientific reflection through i) periodic seminars to read and discuss articles of central importance (to the area) and ongoing researches, ii) organise informative events (talks, symposia, films, exhibitions) and v) organise an annual symposium for members to present their work
- Disseminate the anthropology of childhood and youth in Portugal and set up areas in the academic milieu and the field of social intervention for this study area. Consultancy in social intervention projects.
- Promotion of critical analysis of cultural policies on childhood and youth in Portugal
- Creation of the right conditions for peer-to-peer circulation of materials related to the area (each member provides a list of his/her bibliographical resources available for short-term loan to other unit members)
- Encouragement of members to participate in the general activities of CRIA (working papers, research seminars)
- Creation and management of a unit website that will include sharing bibliographical information, calendars of events, members’ CVs and academic biographies and links to websites of interest
- Joint preparation of national research projects and participation in national funding programmes
- Creation of and inclusion in research networks by establishing ties with other national and international centres and researchers and possible formation of consortia for access to European funding programmes (FP7, Norface).