The workshop and conference is dedicated to the history of early childhood in Europe after 1945, which has so far been considered primarily in terms of the history of social structures and discourses. Historical researchers are invited to contribute and discuss new research approaches and perspectives on the lives of infants and young children.

Diagnoses of profound historical change in the field of childhood, especially early childhood, can be recognised in many and various forms since the end of the Second World War. For example, the repeatedly diagnosed crisis of the family, the change in material culture or the implementation and Europeanisation of early childhood education are considered to have been responsible for the change in childhood. Historiographical studies often point to the ambivalent relationship between childhoods and society, their co-construction, and their entwined development in historical processes. At the same time, a look at historiography makes it clear that the study of this interrelationship has so far been easier for schoolchildren and adolescents. Infants, babies, and toddlers, on the other hand, are more difficult to grasp as participants in cultural and social relationships and historical changes. This workshop addresses this desideratum and aims at bringing researchers together to pursue diverse approaches and new perspectives on the history of early childhood. Historical researchers are invited to discuss their studies on early childhood in Europe after 1945.

The macroscopic view has used keywords such as domestication, institutionalisation, or urbanisation to describe the history of young children in Europe after 1945, thus leaving out essential aspects: On one hand, research topics outside of social, educational or family policy issues are often overlooked, and historical studies on material culture, the history of knowledge or the history of the body, for example, continue to be exceptions. On the other hand, the young child as an actual child is out of sight: In the existing research on the history of early childhood, it rather appears either as the object of conflicts over the distribution of care work or as a consumer of time and money resources.

Questions and perspectives that are well-established in everyday history and in microhistory, and that have been widely tested in childhood and youth studies are hardly available for the life stage and life area of early childhood. Historical studies of the experiences, actions and feelings of infants and toddlers remain rare, despite all calls to the contrary. The workshop aims at encouraging the methodological and conceptual challenges posed by the history of early childhood, not to be circumvented by a focus on discourses and structures, but to be addressed through methodological innovations. Recent reflections on the social micro- and meso-level of practices and their participants, as well as on the body and its material culture, or suggestions from visual history and other extended source materials could be helpful here.
The workshop and the subsequent conference want to develop and publish a substantive and methodological inventory of the history of early childhood in Europe after 1945. Therefore, contributions are welcome that are dedicated to the history of early childhood with the help of new methods, unusual source material or new questions to develop innovative approaches. The workshop also attempts to connect and bring together researchers presenting national and transnational research, which will make it possible to develop a panorama of the different developments and structures, and possible overarching transformations of the history of early childhood in Europe after 1945. Research on all areas of the history of early childhood is welcome, these can be, among others:

- History of Family and Parenthood
- History of Paediatrics
- History of developmental Psychology
- History of Nutrition
- History of material Culture and Toys
- History of early education and childcare
- History of Media in early Childhood
- Visual History
- Early Childhood and Migration
- History of Emotions
- Body-Histories

Organisation

- First Part: Online-Workshop November 3th & 4th
Discussion of pre-circulated papers and joint exchange for further development of papers. Date of Submission final papers: October 15th 2022

- Second Part: Conference at Heidelberg University April 6th & 7th 2023
Presentation of revised contributions. Preparation for Publication 2023

- Languages: English, German

Please send an abstract of your proposal (max. 1-page) by 15.07.2022 to Dr. Max Gawlich max.gawlich@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de.