Childhood as an interdisciplinary category in the system of socio-humanitarian and legal knowledge

Mustafina Lyaisan Renatovna ORCID: 0000-0001-8294-9209 Senior Lecturer, Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University 420008, Russia, Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan, Kremlevskaya str., 18 leisanm81@mail.ru

The understanding of the concept of childhood is carried out in various fields of scientific knowledge. Moreover, each knowledge system as a functional system seeks to reflect in this term the most significant features, since it is in the content of scientific concepts, as D.P. Gorsky notes, that essential distinctive properties of objects are included, that is, such properties, the knowledge of which leads to the disclosure of natural connections of objects, contributes to the clarification of other properties of objects, and knowledge of which It is included in one or another scientific system ^{[1, p.121]}.

At the same time, various points of view are expressed regarding the composition of scientific knowledge analyzing the phenomenon of childhood.

Thus, some authors believe that childhood is the subject of study not only in the humanities, but also in the natural sciences. In particular, A.A. Mayer argues that the basic concepts of childhood are formed in three planes of their existence, biological, psychological and social ^{[2, p.44]}.

D.I. Mamycheva believes that childhood as an object of knowledge is simultaneously included in the subject area of philosophy, cultural studies, psychology and pedagogy, sociology, each of which considers its separate aspects ^[3].

Indeed, in the above-mentioned fields of scientific knowledge, the most important ideas about childhood as an object of social and humanitarian knowledge have developed.

Thus, from a philosophical point of view, T.D. Popkova defines childhood as a meaning-forming life principle, the potency of an adult personality revealed in phylogeny and ontogenesis, an integral period of development of a human individual, during which all biological, mental, intellectual and spiritual processes, value-oriented and socially aimed at creating an image of a human being, take place in their natural natural interrelationship. personalities ^[4]. L.B. Sandakova and T.A. Sidorova, as representatives of social philosophy, believe that childhood acts as a certain stage of ontogenetic development and a social construct, characterize it as something self-existent, possessing a special vital value, a specific way of "being in the world", i.e. consider it a kind of existential state ^{[5, p.170]}.

Pedagogy and developmental psychology (age psychology), which studies the natural changes of a person over time and the related facts and phenomena of mental life ^{[6, p.14]}, almost uniformly reveal the etymological significance of childhood as a stage of ontogenetic development of an individual, beginning with the birth of a child and ending with his direct inclusion in adulthood ^{[7, p.23]} ; the stage of human development preceding adulthood, characterized by intensive growth of the body and the formation of higher mental functions ^{[8, p.93]}. Accordingly, L.F. Obukhova defines childhood as a period of formation of the child's personality, turning into a full-fledged member of societies, the duration of which depends on the level of development of the material and spiritual culture of society ^{[9, p.8-10]}.

In sociological science, scientific theories have been developed about the child as a fundamental social institution of society responsible for the reproduction, preservation and historical development of the human race ^{[10, p.173]}; an object of influence from adults; a subject with consciousness and social competence depending on age characteristics; a subject of social action influenced by socio-cultural conditions; an active participant in public life ^{[11, pp.162-166]}; a certain stage in the life of a particular person associated with the processes of socialization and acculturation, as well as a complex socio-cultural phenomenon reflecting the role, place and position of children at a certain stage of development of societies ^{[12, p.11]}, etc. Childhood itself is determined as expressed in actions and language, a set of objects, events, processes, social institutions and social practices in relation to children, which is formed and maintained by society, as well as constantly renewed in the process of life of children mastering sociality and integrating into society ^{[13, p.109]}.

Thus, childhood acts as a complex object of cognition, and thanks to interdisciplinary scientific connections, the conceptual and ideological foundations of understanding childhood are being developed, having several sections, each of which has its own functional purpose. Among them, it should be noted:

1) socio-philosophical, related to the consideration of the structural connections of childhood through the prism of the general, special and singular , which can be interpreted: a) as a community of all children (from newborns to those who have reached psychological maturity), acting as "an integral part of society, a special generalized subject of multifaceted and diverse relationships" ^{[14, p.42]}; b) a community of children differentiated into groups depending on their age and other parameters, where each of which has additional characteristics c) the child as an individual phenomenon representing the entire social community and consistently (as he grows up) each age group or another;

2) socio-demographic, due to the fact that childhood is an independent socio-demographic group of the population of a heterogeneous nature, depending on the cycle of social and mental development of children, reflecting the peculiarities of human reproductive behavior at certain stages of society development, ensuring natural population growth, and therefore acting in the present and future as the basis of the demographic basis of the state;

3) pedagogical and psychological, which determines the organizational and pedagogical foundations of individual and collective education of children, taking into account the psychophysiological stage of development, as well as the main directions and priorities of the educational process as a subject-object interaction of its participants (teachers, children and parents), which together ensure the formation of the psychological structure of personality, the development of individual and social consciousness of the child (children), their mastering of social norms and rules of existence, value orientations and meanings for the purpose of subsequent reproduction in collective activities, as well as individual development and improvement;

4) socio-historical, due to the fact that childhood is considered as a period of assimilation of accumulated socio-historical experience (practical, ideological and theoretical), as well as special institutional education;

5) sociological, considering childhood as an element of the social structure of society, possessing unique features due to natural givenness, functions.

Thus, we can agree with the opinion of representatives of the social and humanitarian sciences that childhood should be understood as a complex social, historical phenomenon characterizing one of the stages of personality development, performing specific functions that ensure its existence and reproduction in the system of interaction with other social institutions, practices, processes, the subjects of which are children and adults ^[3].

At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that when substantiating the categorical status of childhood, the presented sciences, as a rule, do not appeal to the provisions of branch legal sciences.

However, in some publications there are references to certain elements of legal knowledge. In particular, D. G. Podvoysky and N.P. Naumova note that the status of childhood as a special human condition varies depending on social and historical conditions, and the concept of childhood is associated not so much with a state of biological immaturity as with a certain set of rights and obligations, a set of various types and forms of activity inherent in this age period ^{[15, p.49]} .

We believe that childhood should also be considered as a legal category, which, as noted by R.A. Shcherbakov, is designed to describe and explain existing phenomena related to law ^{[16, p.63]}.

Childhood as a structural, meaningful and functional component of society acts, as already noted, as a social phenomenon with a diverse subjective and objective nature. At the same time, these characteristics, in our opinion, determine the need and possibility of legal regulation of childhood, and therefore its attribution to socio-legal and (or) legal phenomena.

According to P.S. Barinov, the essential features of the legal category are such features as the extremely general and fundamental nature, ensuring a systematic vision of legal phenomena, reflecting the natural connections and relations of legal reality, organic entry into the subject of a particular legal science, legal value, focus on the development of principles and rules of their application in specific cognitive procedures, in the process of moving towards new scientific knowledge ^{[17, p.130]}.

The extremely general and fundamental nature of childhood as a legal category is expressed in the fact that it covers an integral world with basic social, demographic, cognitive, psychophysiological, pedagogical, cultural, legal properties and boundaries.

Legal studies also reflect the fundamental importance of this age period in the process of legal education and upbringing, the mechanism of formation of legal awareness, the assimilation of legal (socio-legal) attitudes, value orientations and norms. In particular, I.Y. Blyasova points out that in a state governed by the rule of law, from childhood it is required to lay the foundations of legal views and attitudes of the individual, which during adulthood will determine the basis of the worldview ^{[18, p.5]}.

Childhood as a legal category reflects its features as a systemic phenomenon in law. If in the social sciences and humanities the systemic idea of childhood is based on its recognition as a temporary state due to a set of biosocial and socio-cultural characteristics and properties of children, then the law integrates norms, legal relations, legal personality, legal states, orders and concepts, the type, structure and content of which allows us to consider the child as an independent subject of law, possessing a set of of diverse legal statuses.

At the same time, constitutional norms proclaiming childhood to be an object of state support (Part 2 of Article 7 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation), as well as state protection (Part 1 of Article 38 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation), act as prerequisites for considering childhood in the system of legal regulation.

In addition, the Constitution and other legislative acts of the Russian Federation emphasize the collective nature of the concept of childhood, paying attention to the carriers of this condition: children (Part 2 of Article 38 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Article 7 of the Federal Law "On the Basics of protecting the Health of Citizens in the Russian Federation"), a child (according to Part 1 of Article 54 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation a child is a person who has not reached the age of eighteen (of majority)) , minors between the ages of 16 and 18 , minors between the ages of 14 and 18 , emancipated minors, minors under the age of 14 (minors) , born , part of the youth , young citizens , etc.

In this regard, N.V. Letova, who identifies the distinctive features of children, which include age, belonging to a certain sex, the presence or absence of a family, health status, the nature of intersectoral ties with their participation, believes that the child has different statuses: general, special and individual. At the same time, she does not recognize the general or constitutional status of the child as universal, and considers special and individual statuses as manifestations of his special legal status ^{[19, pp.137, 138]}.

It should also be borne in mind that in public life children can act as subjects of general and specific legal relations, bearers of rights and obligations, including basic and sectoral ones, moreover, for these purposes they are endowed with legal personality, which is differentiated depending on the sectoral and even sub-sectoral (for example, hereditary legal personality of minors) affiliation. In addition, the perception of the concept of the individual status of a legal entity reflects the objective division of children into independent groups depending on the categories established by law, and also provides an opportunity to personify each child within their boundaries.

Our position is that the constitutional basis of the rights of children (child) is the system of constitutional legislation in the Russian Federation, and the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, enshrined primarily in the Constitution of Russia, determine the content of the general (constitutional) legal personality of the child (children) as a person and a citizen, the elements of which in the form of legal capacity, legal capacity and delictability act initially as abstract abilities. As for the identification of the general (constitutional) status with the socio-legal one, we believe that in its structure the latter coincides with the legal status of the child and reflects its special interrelationships with public and state institutions.

Of particular interest is the issue of the special legal status of children, which has a number of specific features that allow it to be distinguished from other types of legal status.

First of all, the allocation of a special (generic) status is conditioned by the need to reflect the specifics of the participation of individual social groups, including children, in diversified legal relations.

Family socialization is a necessary, basic and universal trend in the existence and development of childhood; therefore, the family is considered as a natural environment for the upbringing of a child, which is important for the formation of this age structure of society and its further reproduction. The revealed social pattern is reflected in the provisions of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the regulation of family relations is based on the priority of family education of children, care for their welfare and development, ensuring priority protection of the rights and interests of minors.

Childhood as a socio-legal category contains, in addition to social, also biological (psychophysiological) aspects, which are expressed in normative prescriptions, determining the content of the legal component in social patterns. Thus, the peculiarities of a child's physical and neuropsychic development, i.e. age, and therefore social immaturity and, as a result, lack of full legal capacity, as O.Yu Kosova notes, are reflected in the sectoral legal regulation of relations involving minors ^{[20, p.235]}. In this regard, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation operates with the following categories of children in relation to labor relations: persons under the age of 14; persons over the age of 14; persons over the age of 15; persons over the age of 16.

At the same time, childhood has the status of a legal category, since it meaningfully integrates many interrelated phenomena: individual subjects of law (child), collective subjects of law (groups of children), legal norms of various industry affiliation, legal facts, the system of legal relations, legal regimes, legal procedures and legal guarantees through which its social- legal value for society. Accordingly, childhood as a legal category is designed to reflect the objective and necessary interrelationships between phenomena and processes in the field of state and law.

In this regard, we can agree with the opinion of Yu.Yu. Shturtsev, who believes that the subjects of law-making, through the establishment and authorization of legal norms, direct participants in legal relations to a certain result reflecting state-legal patterns ^[21,p.138].

Consequently, state-legal patterns, as well as their manifestations in legal activity, are inevitably included in the sphere of legal regulation of childhood.

Thus, the main manifestations of the state-legal regularity of child protection and protection of children's rights, based on the content of acts of federal legislation, include the following trends, recorded and supported by the legislator: the expansion of institutional forms of assistance to the child in the realization and protection of his rights and legitimate interests, the development of a social protection system, the specification of measures to promote physical, intellectual mental, spiritual and moral development of children, protection of children's rights, taking into account the peculiarities of age and social status (for example, children in difficult situations), specialization of law enforcement procedures with the participation of a child, etc.

Organic entry into the subject of a particular legal science, as already noted, is one of the signs of the categorical status of the concept. With regard to childhood as an area of social relations and interactions with other facts and phenomena of legal reality, its integration with the conceptual apparatus of almost all branch of legal sciences should be noted, which confirms its interdisciplinary importance in the system of legal knowledge.

Finally, childhood as a socio-legal and at the same time a legal category contributes to the organization of the scientific and cognitive process, its individual elements (scientific search, analysis, structuring of information, its modeling, etc.), which result in knowledge (everyday, professional, theoretical) about it as a complex phenomenon and its state in society as a dynamic the system.

So, in the system of socio-humanitarian and legal scientific knowledge, childhood can be considered simultaneously as a socio-legal, interdisciplinary legal category that is part of the conceptual and categorical apparatus of public law and private law sciences, an industry-specific legal category that has developed, including in the science of constitutional law. Accordingly, childhood can be defined as a universal legal category that allows us to analyze the statics and dynamics of its regulation and protection, to establish the specifics of its interaction with other state-legal phenomena and processes taking shape on the territory of the state or its part in a certain historical period.

Childhood in the system of socio-humanitarian and legal knowledge acts as a complex object of cognition, and thanks to interdisciplinary connections, the conceptual and ideological foundations of its understanding are developed, having several sections, each of which has its own functional purpose: philosophical, socio-philosophical, socio-demographic, pedagogical-psychological, socio-historical, sociological, cultural and legal.