In childhood, one that breaks free from the individualistic doctrine that regards socializa­tion as the child’s private internalization of adult skills and knowledge. In this new approach the focus is on childhood as a social construction resulting from the collective actions of children with adults and each other. Childhood is recognized as a structural form and children are social agents who con­tribute to the reproduction of childhood and society through their nego­tiations with adults and through their creative production of a series of peer cultures with other children. This new view of childhood as a social phenomenon replaces the traditional notion of socialization with the concept of interpretive reproduction. Interpretive reproduction reflects children’s yolving membership in their culture, which begins in the family and spirals outward create a series of embedded peer cultures based on the institutional of the adult culture. Overall, the notion of interpretive production challenges sociology to take children seriously and to appreci­ate children's contributions to social reproduction and change.