Military recruitment will become more difficult in times of demographic aging. The question arises whether demographic change will constrain the capacity of aging states like Germany to conduct foreign policy and pursue their national security interests. Since contemporary military operations still display a strong human element, particular scrutiny is given to the empirical analysis of the determinants of military propensity and military service among youth.

An additional human capital projection until 2030 illustrates how the decline in the youth population will interact with trends in educational attainment and adolescent health to further complicate military recruitment in the future. A concluding review of recruiting practices in other NATO countries provides insight in best-practice policy options to reduce the military's sensitivity to demographic change.

Following this approach, the book gives prominence to a topic that has thus far been under-represented in the greater discussion of demographic change today, namely the demographic impact on international affairs and strategic calculations.

From politics to popular culture, baby boomers exert a profound impact on America. As they enter middle age and retirement, this generation, unprecedented in size, will confront a vast new realm of problems, choices, and decisions. Their needs will make the "graying of America" the most significant demographic event of our time. As a resource fitted to such an event, Aging: Lifestyles, Work, and Money, provides a definitive, comprehensive source of information about people aged 65 years and older. The information is indexed and included under easy-to-follow headings, allowing the reader to locate facts quickly and as needed, or browse and encounter valuable information serendipitously. More than 180 tables, graphs, and charts provide carefully selected information on: Marital status Living arrangements Family life Geographic location and geographic mobility Transportation and housing Community life Social activity Leisure Crime Citizenship Language Education Income and poverty Finances-assets, savings, debt, and attitudes consumer spending Work and retirement Social Security Vierck and Hodges not only provide exhaustive coverage of vital statistics (including many previously unpublished features), but also offer analytical support--describing trends, offering insights, and providing a framework for understanding the data. This volume is ideally suited to the elderly whose concerns it investigates, as well as to medical and nursing libraries, and anyone interested in the manifold issues associated with the elderly. It includes a bibliography, a listing of Web sites, and an appendix listing world records and fascinating facts, providing a record of some extraordinary achievements of theelderly.

With 70 per cent of its people under the age of 30, Africa is the world's youngest continent. African youngsters have been largely characterized as either vulnerable victims of the frequent humanitarian crises that plague their homelands, or as violent militarized youth and 'troubled' gang members. Young people's contributions to processes of educational provision, peace building and participatory human development in Africa are often ignored. While acknowledging the profound challenges associated with growing up in an environment of uncertainty and deprivation, African Childhoods sheds light on African children's often constructive engagement with a variety of societal conditions, adverse or otherwise, and their ability to positively influence their own lives and those of others.

In its various manifestations, the campaign to end child soldiering has brought graphic images of militarized children to popular consciousness. In the main, this has been a campaign that has seemed to speak to African contexts without as much reflection on the myriad ways in which the lives of children are militarized in advanced (post)industrial societies. Proceeding from this quite striking omission, the contributors to this volume move beyond the usual focus on the global South. Making what will be an important contribution to a much needed critical turn in the vast and still rapidly growing child soldier literature, they address multifarious ways in which childhood is militarized beyond the global South through enactments of militarism that have drawn much less in the way of critical inquiry.

In Kids Those Days, Lahney Preston-Matto and Mary Valante have organized a collection of interdisciplinary research into childhood throughout the Middle Ages. Contributors to the volume investigate childhood from Greece to the "Celtic-Fringe," looking at how children lived, suffered, thrived, or died young. Scholars from myriad disciplines, from art and archaeology to history and literature, offer essays on abandonment and abuse, fosterage and guardianship, criminal behavior and child-rearing, child bishops and sainthood, disabilities and miracles, and a wide variety of other subjects related to medieval children. The volume focuses especially on children in the realms of religion, law, and vulnerabilities. Contributors are Paul A. Broyles, Sarah Croix, Gavin Fort, Sophia Germanidou, Danielle Griego, Maire Johnson, Daniel T. Kline, Jenni Kuuliala, Lahney Preston-Matto, Melissa Raine, Eve Salisbury, Ruth Salter, Bridgette Slavin, and Mary A. Valante.

Evidence of widening inequalities in later life raises concerns about the ways in which older adults might experience forms of social exclusion. Such concerns are evident in all societies as they seek to come to terms with the unprecedented ageing of their populations. Taking a broad international perspective, this highly topical book casts light on patterns and processes that either place groups of older adults at risk of exclusion or are conducive to their inclusion. Leading international experts challenge traditional understandings of exclusion in relation to ageing in From Exclusion to Inclusion in Old Age. They also present new evidence of the interplay between social institutions, policy processes, personal resources and the contexts within which ageing individuals live to show how this shapes inclusion or exclusion in later life. Dealing with topics such as globalisation, age discrimination and human rights, intergenerational relationships, poverty, and migration, the book is essential reading for anyone interested in ageing issues.

This text provides insights into the field of international human rights politics - the protection of children and their rights - by looking at the negotiations leading to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Ever since the killings at Columbine High School created a renewed focus on the problems of adolescent aggression, professionals in education, criminal justice, and social services have been seeking ways to curb its rising tide. This volume examines adolescent aggression from many perspectives--biological, psychological, and social--and analyzes some of the contributing factors to this growing problem. Written by internationally recognized experts in adolescent psychology, this book not only covers the causes of teen violence but, more important, offers solutions. McCarthy, Hutz, and their contributors reveal the precursors to violent behavior, and provide strategies for working with adolescents to prevent future violence. The symptoms and strategies are described clearly in a way that can be understood and adapted by parents, schools, social service agencies, and criminal justice institutions. Topics include: substance abuse; suicide and self-harm; sexual aggression; anger management and impulse control; gang violence; school violence; bullying; resilience; and increasing critical thinking skills. This book is a must-read for anyone who lives, works, or comes in contact with youth.

aChildren and Youth in a New Nation is a rich and welcomed introduction to the many faces of childhood in America from the Revolution to the eve of the Civil War. The history of childhood is often treated as a marginal topic, disconnected from major historical themes. This volume seeks to correct that misperception by demonstrating that the growth of the republic and the emergence of new ideas about childhood and the shifting experience of actual children were inextricably linked.a
--Steven Mintz, Columbia University, and author of "Huckas Raft: A History of American Childhood"

In the early years of the Republic, as Americans tried to determine what it meant to be an American, they also wondered what it meant to be an American child. A defensive, even fearful, approach to childhood gave way to a more optimistic campaign to integrate young Americans into the Republican experiment.

In Children and Youth in a New Nation, historians unearth the experiences of and attitudes about children and youth during the decades following the American Revolution. Beginning with the revolution itself, the contributors explore a broad range of topics, from the ways in which American children and youth participated in and learned from the revolt and its aftermaths, to developing notions of aideala childhoods as they were imagined by new religious denominations and competing ethnic groups, to the struggle by educators over how the society that came out of the Revolution could best be served by its educational systems. The volume concludes by foreshadowing future achild-savinga efforts by reformers committed to constructing adequate systems of public health and child welfare institutions.

Rootedin the historical literature and primary sources, Children and Youth in a New Nation is a key resource in our understanding of origins of modern ideas about children and youth and the conflation of national purpose and ideas related to child development.

Comparing the educational experiences of adolescents from a variety of 'visible' ethnic minority groups across Europe, and focusing on underprivileged urban contexts, this book reveals the structural inequalities, as well as the often conflicting inter-ethnic relations which develop in classrooms, playgrounds and larger communities.

Taking a sociocultural approach to understanding violence, the authors in this collection examine how norms of gender, culture and educational practice contribute to school violence, providing strategies to intervene in and address violence in educational contexts.

Passionately argued, this book articulates a new and urgent case for youth work. Drawing on his extensive experience as a union leader for youth workers in the UK, Doug Nicholls argues for sweeping cultural change within the youth sector, identifying the important things youth workers have achieved and the major changes that must take place if they are to keep up with the radically altered world. Examining a wide range of theories from various practices, government policies, and international scholarship, he speaks to youth workers with wit, wisdom, and warmth about their lives.

'Street Girls' tells the inspirational story of the Meninadan a Project - a charity established to reach out to the street-girls of Belo Horizonte in Brazil. It will introduce you to the Street Girls themselves and inspire you with stories of how God has brought hope to their lives through Matt Roper and the Meninadanca team. Its personal, readable style coupled with a poignant immediacy make this a uniquely compelling and moving read.

In low-income U.S. cities, street fights between teenage girls are common. These fights take place at school, on street corners, or in parks, when one girl provokes another to the point that she must either "step up" or be labeled a "punk." Typically, when girls engage in violence that is not strictly self-defense, they are labeled "delinquent," their actions taken as a sign of emotional pathology. However, in Why Girls Fight, Cindy D. Ness demonstrates that in poor urban areas this kind of street fighting is seen as a normal part of girlhood and a necessary way to earn respect among peers, as well as a way for girls to attain a sense of mastery and self-esteem in a social setting where legal opportunities for achievement are not otherwise easily available. Ness spent almost two years in west and northeast Philadelphia to get a sense of how teenage girls experience inflicting physical harm and the meanings they assign to it. While most existing work on girls' violence deals exclusively with gangs, Ness sheds new light on the everyday street fighting of urban girls, arguing that different cultural standards associated with race and class influence the relationship that girls have to physical aggression.

The past decade brought forth a wave of excitement and promise for researchers and practitioners interested in community practice as an approach based on social justice principles and an embrace of community participatory actions. But, effective community practice is predicated on the availability and use of assessment methods that not only capture and report on conditions, but also simultaneously set the stage for social change efforts. This research, therefore, serves the dual purpose of generating knowledge and also being an integral part of social intervention. Research done in this way, however, requires new tools. Photovoice is one such tool - a form of visual ethnography that invites participants to represent their community or point of view through photographs, accompanied by narratives, to be shared with each other and with a broader community. Urban Youth and Photovoice focuses on the use of this method within urban settings and among adolescents and young adults - a group that is almost naturally drawn to the use of photography (especially digital and particularly in today's era of texting, facebook, and instagram) to showcase photovoice as an important qualitative research method for social workers and others in the social sciences, and providing readers with detailed theoretical and practical account of how to plan, implement, and evaluate the results of a photovoice project focused on urban youth.

The children and grandchildren of South Asian migrants to the UK are living out British identities which go largely unrecognized as dominant voices both inside and outside their communities, seeking to foreground and hold in place alternative positionings of them as primarily Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims or Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis or Panjabi, Gujarati, Hindi, and Urdu speakers. This ignores their everyday low-key Britishness, albeit a Britishness with new inflections. It is this sensibility which marks them as "Brasians."

Nuclear family and kibbutz childrearing practices are compared from a Rawlsian perspective of justice. Based upon the kibbutz educational system, which has reinstituted the family, Geiger and Fischer propose a model of educational change for consideration in the United States. This model is designed to strengthen the nuclear family while improving the prospects of disadvantaged, anomic, and unattached youth.

Geiger and Fischer examine, within a Rawlsian perspective, several child-rearing institutions affecting children. Justice as fairness would consider a child-rearing institution and its inequalities as fair if there are no alternative arrangements under which the prospects of least-advantaged children could be improved. Among these least-advantaged children are those who are neglected, abused, and stripped of self-respect. As the nuclear family disintegrates, the authors ask whether it can fulfill its child-rearing function. Utilizing a self-report study conducted on socialization and delinquency in Israel as well as several other observational studies, the authors demonstrate that in a more egalitarian structure such as the kibbutz, least-advantaged children have more opportunities to develop into autonomous responsible individuals. For Americans, the kibbutz educational system shows new paths for change from nursery school through high school that would allow for greater bonds between the family, school, work, and the community. An emerging sense of community would also stimulate the moral and intellectual growth of disadvantaged youth. This book is recommended to researchers and policy makers in the areas of education, delinquency, and social welfare.

Even after 20 years of children's rights and new thinking about childhood, children are still frequently seen as apolitical. All over the world there has been a growing emphasis on 'participation', but much of this is adult-led, and spaces for children's individual and collective autonomy are limited. "Children, politics and communication" questions many of the conventional ways in which children are perceived. It focuses on the politics of children's communication, in two senses: children as political actors, and the micropolitics of children's interaction with each other and with adults. It looks at how children and young people communicate and engage, how they organise themselves and their lives, and how they deal with conflict in their relationships and the world around them. These are children at the margins, in various ways, but they are not victims; they are finding ways to take charge of their own lives. The book is also about adults and how they can interact with children and young people in ways that are sensitive to children's feelings, empowering and supportive of their attempts to be autonomous. With international contributions from a range of disciplines, "Children, politics and communication" is timely and relevant for policy makers, practitioners and researchers engaging with children and young people.

The New Cockney provides a sociolinguistic account of speech variation among adolescents in the 'traditional' East End of London. Embedded in its social context, it focuses on the interaction and social practices within a single community and highlights some of the possible mechanisms for language change.

This handbook describes evidence-based methods of assessing psychological, educational, behavioral, and developmental problems in children and adolescents. It provides state-of-the-art analyses of leading assessment tools and methods. Chapters provide an overview of childhood assessment issues, diagnostic classification systems, interviewing and report writing, traditional assessment tools and methods, such as Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). In addition, chapters address daily living, academic, and social skills, commonly encountered psychological conditions, and developmental disorders, reviewing definitions and etiology, history of assessment and diagnosis, possible comorbid conditions, and current measures and procedures. The handbook also covers specific childhood disorders that often present assessment challenges in children, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, mood disorders, pain, and feeding and eating disorders. Topics featured in this handbook include: Adaptive and developmental behavior scales. Diagnostic classification systems and how to apply them to childhood problems and disorders. Intelligence testing and its use in childhood psychological assessment. Assessment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in persons with developmental disabilities. Self-Injurious behavior in children. Prevalence and assessment of common sleep problems in children. The Handbook of Childhood Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities Assessment is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, clinicians, and related therapists and professionals in clinical child and school psychology, pediatrics, social work, developmental psychology, behavioral therapy/rehabilitation, child and adolescent psychiatry, and special education.

This volume is comprised of empirical research and theoretical papers within three key areas, namely children's well being, children and youth peer cultures, and the rights of children and youth. These empirical studies include children's voices and experiences from four continents (Asia, Europe, North America and South America) and a range of methodological and theoretical orientations. A clear connection to social policy at a national and international level is made in many of these studies. Topics are wide-ranging and include: Praetorian militarization; school mobility; math and reading achievement gaps; dating and the developmental discourse in a summer camp; and, school and social exclusion for urban young people. Altogether, these studies highlight how structure and culture both limit and enable the life chances of children, how children interpret and construct their social relations and environments, and how children view themselves as well as how others view the rights of children. This volume is a further example of how the "Sociological Studies of Children and Youth" series successfully showcases major strands of current thinking on children and youth in our world today.

This unique research tool will lead researchers and practitioners to published materials and documents that can provide answers needed for making informed decisions regarding issues related to today's children. Comprised of approximately 1,400 entries, this guide reflects an interdisciplinary approach citing sources from the fields of psychology, education, sociology, medicine, law, home economics, and the arts. Chapter 12, with its focus on creativity, is unique in its coverage of drama, dance, art, and music. The bibliography of music resources by Marian Ritter is the first of its kind.

Appropriate for a wide range of users, this book is designed for students just beginning to seek answers to questions concerning children, as well as professionals with years of experience in dealing with childhood problems. It will also be helpful for those wishing to learn about using databases in the literature searching process. A carefully organized table of contents and complete subject index allow for ease of entry location.

In recent decades, sociological research has investigated the nature of the school institution and its uneven effects on the progress of families, societies, and the global community. Yet, relatively little comparative research on schooling has dealt in a serious way with links between schooling and the other major contexts of childhood: families and communities. This edition of Research in the Sociology of Education speaks to the diverse contexts in which children function around the world, and to how these contexts shape school experiences and outcomes. The editions authors are international and interdisciplinary. They offer a pastiche of perspectives on a single topic: how the non-school contexts of childhood interact with the school institution to advance modern and not-so-modern forms of virtue, merit, and attainment, in cultural context.
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*Offers qualitative and statistical portraits of children living in Asian and African countries
*Links educationalopportunities to the child's socialization
*Urges social scientists and policy makers to consider a child's surroundings when modeling the modern school system