SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS - RISK ANXIETY AND THE EVERYDAY WORLDS OF CHILDREN

In this paper we explore some key antionomies which have emerged in re lation to children and childhood in late modernity: tensions between a utonomy and protection and between perceptions of children as 'at risk ' and as potentially threatening. A particular focus here is on the se xualisation of risk, the degree of public concern expressed whenever t he sexual 'innocence' of children is thought to be endangered. We argu e that the concept of risk anxiety provides a useful means of analysin g contemporary fears about children and childhood and may thus be unde rstood as contributing to the ongoing social construction of childhood . Here risk anxiety must be located within the context of gendered and generational power relations, in which children's lives are bounded b y adult surveillance. Furthermore, risk anxiety may have material cons equences for children's daily lives and for everyday adult-child negot iations around safety and danger, protection and autonomy.