Images of childhood, play and toy: A socio-cultural analysis

Childhood image refers to the meaning attributed to the `child? and it means the conseption of childhood. That image has had different meanings for different times and therefore it is a cultural act. As for the play culture, it is the part of child culture which is inseperable. While there are varied childhood images at different times, there also many varied toys and plays for children, which has led to ocur varieties in childhood and child culture among different communities and cultures. Childhood image and plays for children are one of the areas which characterizes the society and which are effected most by the social changes.Today childhood and the culture of child plays have been changing fast. Within the process of globalization, it is indicated about post-modern childhood and disappearance of social plays and traditional toys. The social changes around the world and in Turkey have an effect on changing the culture of child play and the concept of childhood.In this work, it is studied what childhood, play and toy mean in terms of sociological perspective; how childhood and culture of play are effected by changing socio-cultural processes; how and in which direction they are being changed. Additionally, how the child culture has changed by means of industrialization, urbanization, improvement in technology, capitalism, consumption culture and globalization process, which are the sources of change in society, is analyzed using the terms ?traditional, modern and post-modern? in a historical contrastice way.Keywords: Childhood image, play culture, social change, traditional, modern, post- modern, socio-cultural analysis.