Introduction: Anxiety Over Childhood and Youth Across Cultures

The introductory chapter of this volume sets to define the epistemological context within which this collective work is situated. Acknowledging the contribution of well cited and established theories on moral panics to the available body of knowledge, we position ourselves in line with scholarship that draws upon new cultural history and social constructionism in contextualising discourses of anxiety around childhood. In doing that, we wish to contribute to the relevant ongoing academic discussion in the following ways: first, we wish to gather and reflect on the recent growth of relevant research and scholarship into social anxieties surrounding youth and childhood cultures and practices. Second, to enhance both local and global understandings and debates of anxiety by being at the forefront of current research. And last but not least, to disseminate new research from countries we do not necessarily hear very much about, such as Mexico, Brazil and francophone Canada, among others.