As social scientists, we are called to investigate society. A powerful component of understanding society can be found when researching the lives of children and youth. "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children" stated Nelson Mandela. This volume provides a glimpse into the lives of children and youth; thus, The Soul of Society: A Focus on the Lives of Children & Youth.

This edited collection explores the intersectionality of childhood and disability. Whereas available scholarship tends to concentrate on care-giving, parenting, or supporting and teaching children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, the contributors to this collection offer an engaging and accessible insight into childhoods that are impacted by disability and impairment. The discussions cut across traditional disciplinary divides and offer critical insights into the key issues that relate to disabled children and young people's lives, encouraging the exploration of both disability and childhoods in their broadest terms. Dis/abled Childhoods? will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including Special Educational Needs; Childhood Studies; Disability Studies; Youth Studies; and Health and Social Care.

In this volume, guest editor Qvortrup brings together contributions representing structural, historical, and comparative perspectives on the study of children and youth. Here, childhood is conceived as a structural feature of society, subject to the stable and changing forces of the larger social context, and comparable across time and cultures. Such perspectives have been relatively under-represented in the "New Sociology of Childhood," which has tended both to stress children's agency, and to favour ethnographic methods of inquiry. The series editors are pleased to expand and enliven the foci of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth with this volume edited by the internationally renowned Danish Sociologist Jens Qvortrup, the first non-U.S. editor in the series' history.

Child Labour in Global Society is a critical response to the modern educational regime, compulsory schooling and the 'slavery industry' in a globalizing world; to evolving and exploitative notions of 'slavery'; to definitions of 'slavery' in international law; to approaches to 'educational labour', including in international human rights law; and to cultural, common-sense and professional perspectives on 'slavery' and 'educational labour', in the light of which it is arguable that children's 'slave labour' in modern and modernizing societies is grossly under-estimated and otherwise greatly, if conveniently, misrepresented.

Steven Threadgold's study represents the first comprehensive engagement of Pierre Bourdieu's influential sociology with affect theory. With empirical research and examples from sociology, it develops a theory of "Affective Affinities," deepening our understanding of how everyday moments contribute to the construction and remaking of social class and aspects of inequalities. It identifies new ways to consider the strengths and weaknesses of Bourdieusian principles and their interaction with new developments in social theory. This is a stimulating read for students, researchers and academics across studies in youth, education, labour markets, pop culture, media, consumption and taste.

This book examines the relationship between contemporary cultural representations of disabled children on the one hand, and disability as a personal experience of internalised oppression on the other. In focalising this debate through an exploration of the politically and emotionally charged figure of the disabled child, Harriet Cooper raises questions both about what it means to 'speak for' the other and about what resistance means when one is unknowingly invested in one's own abjection. Drawing on both the author's personal experience of growing up with a physical impairment and on a range of critical theories and cultural objects - from Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel The Secret Garden to Judith Butler's work on injurious speech - the book theorises the making of disabled and 'rehabilitated' subjectivities. With a conceptual framework informed by both psychoanalysis and critical disability studies, it investigates the ways in which cultural anxieties about disability come to be embodied and lived by the disabled child. Posing new questions for disability studies and for identity politics about the relationships between lived experiences, cultural representations and dominant discourses - and demonstrating a new approach to the concept of 'internalised oppression' - this book will be of interest to scholars and students of disability studies, medical humanities, sociology and psychosocial studies, as well as to those with an interest in identity politics more generally.

Many new mothers and fathers are surprised at how they change as individuals and as couples after a baby is born. Susan Walzer's interviews explore the tendency for men and women to experience their transitions into parenthood in different ways -- a pattern that has been linked to marital stress. How do new mothers and fathers think about babies, and what is the influence of parental consciousness in reproducing motherhood and fatherhood as different experiences? The reports of new parents in this book illustrate the power of gendered cultural imagery in how women and men think about their roles and negotiate their parenting arrangement. New parents talk about what it means to them to be a \u0022good\u0022 mother or father and how this plays out in their working arrangements and their everyday interactions over child care. The author carefully unravels the effects of social norms, personal relationships, and social institutions in channeling parents toward gender-differentiated approaches to parenting.

A Therapist's Guide to Child Development gives therapists and counselors the basics they need to understand their clients in the context of development and to explain development to parents. The chapters take the reader through the various physical, social, and identity developments occurring at each age, explaining how each stage of development is closely linked to mental health and how that is revealed in therapy. This ideal guide for students, as well as early and experienced professionals, will also give readers the tools to communicate successfully with the child's guardians or teachers, including easy-to-read handouts that detail what kind of behaviors are not cause for concern and which behaviors mean it's time to seek help. As an aid to practitioners, this book matches developmental ages with appropriate, evidence-based mental health interventions.

Honorable Mention, 2020 Stirling Prize for Best Published Work in Psychological Anthropology, given by the Society for Psychological Anthropology Honorable Mention, New Millennium Book Award, given by the Society for Medical Anthropology How youth on the autism spectrum negotiate the contested meanings of neurodiversity Autism is a deeply contested condition. To some, it is a devastating invader, harming children and isolating them. To others, it is an asset and a distinctive aspect of an individual's identity. How do young people on the spectrum make sense of this conflict, in the context of their own developing identity? While most of the research on Asperger's and related autism conditions has been conducted with individuals or in settings in which people on the spectrum are in the minority, this book draws on two years of ethnographic work in communities that bring people with Asperger's and related conditions together. It can thus begin to explore a form of autistic culture, through attending to how those on the spectrum make sense of their conditions through shared social practices. Elizabeth Fein brings her many years of experience in both clinical psychology and psychological anthropology to analyze the connection between neuropsychological difference and culture. She argues that current medical models, which espouse a limited definition, are ill equipped to deal with the challenges of discussing autism-related conditions. Consequently, youths on the autism spectrum reach beyond medicine for their stories of difference and disorder, drawing instead on shared mythologies from popular culture and speculative fiction to conceptualize their experience of changing personhood. In moving and persuasive prose, Living on the Spectrum illustrates that young people use these stories to pioneer more inclusive understandings of what makes us who we are.

This delightful book with beautiful, illustrated characters is a magical retelling of the classic Snow White fairy tale with a twist. In this captivating interpretation of a classic fairy tale, children can rediscover the much-loved story of Snow White while exploring the Fairy-tale Kingdom - a place where all of the classic fairy tales coexist and intertwine. In this retelling of Snow White, youngsters can follow Verity and her fairy friends and see how they help good prevail over evil, making sure everyone lives happily ever after. Verity means truth, and that is exactly what she does, she tells the truth, ALL the time, and it often gets her into a lot of trouble! It's a spellbinding behind-the-scenes look at the battle between Snow White and her evil stepmother, with an extra sprinkling of fairy dust. Gorgeous characters, simple text and a splash of humour makes Verity Fairy and Snow White a captivating book to share.

With climate change in the news, an urban core that has reached boiling point, and many children growing up without role models and with limited dreams, where is hope? There is a quiet experiment in Milwaukee that is turning heads. It starts with the simplicity of getting a city kid exploring their neighborhood park. How is it that so much life, community, and opportunity can grow from this unlikely soil? It's been called a miracle. It's contagious. It's spreading. It's exciting. And it works! This is the story of a group of ordinary people in a neighborhood who created something extraordinary. Readers will discover... the power of getting a city kid outside in nature; that kindness does work; how to say no while following the yes; the value of clarity and focus; how to find abundance within their own diverse community by simply and humbly asking for help; ten tried and tested rules for raising money (a lot of it!) while having a ton of fun doing it; a positive, believable, and very real vision for the future of the environment (we've got this!); and... how to join the Urban Ecology movement.

This edited collection is an interdisciplinary and dialogical endeavor focused on the field of Nordic Girlhood Studies. It investigates young femininity as well as the key themes and concepts of Girlhood Studies, including girl power, feminisms, femininity, gender equality, postfeminism and sexualities in the specific cultural, historical and political context of the Nordic region. The chapters of the book consist of thematic case studies, including memories of girl power in the Finnish context, gendered harassment experienced and explained by Finnish girls, troublesome girlhood within the Swedish context and girls' subjectification projects in Nordic welfare state. Further, the case studies are accompanied by dialogical Outlook-essays, where researchers either outside Nordic region or from adjacent research fields reflect on Nordic Girlhood Studies through comparisons and reflections form their vantage point. The book will be of scholarly interest to researchers and students working especially on the fields of Girlhood Studies, Youth Studies, Gender Studies, Sociology and Cultural Studies both within the Nordic region and outside.

Do you remember getting up on a Saturday morning to watch Going Live? A time when scrunchies and curtains were the height of cool? Playing Sonic the Hedgehog on your Sega Mega Drive? Then the chances are you were a child in the nineties. This trip down memory lane will jog the memory of even the coolest 30-year-old, and make you long for the days when Gladiators was on the telly and the Spice Girls spiced up your life.

Jenny Huberman provides an ethnographic study of encounters between western tourists and the children who work as unlicensed peddlers and guides along the riverfront city of Banaras, India. She examines how and why these children elicit such powerful reactions from western tourists and locals in their community as well as how the children themselves experience their work and render it meaningful. Ambivalent Encounters brings together scholarship on the anthropology of childhood, tourism, consumption, and exchange to ask why children emerge as objects of the international tourist gaze; what role they play in representing socio-economic change; how children are valued and devalued; why they elicit anxieties, fantasies, and debates; and what these tourist encounters teach us more generally about the nature of human interaction. Huberman examines the role of gender in mediating experiences of social change: girls are praised by locals for participating constructively in the informal tourist economy while boys are accused of deviant behavior. Huberman is interested equally in the children's and adults' perspectives. Her own experiences as a western visitor and researcher provide an intriguing entry into her interpretations.

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.

Growing up with social and economic upheaval in the peripheries of global neoliberalism, children in rural Zambia are presented with diverging social and moral protocols across homes, classrooms, church halls, and the streets. Mostly unmonitored by adults, they explore the ambiguities of adult life in playful interactions with their siblings and kin across gender and age. Drawing on rich linguistic-ethnographic details of such interactions combined with observations of school and household procedures, the author provides a rare insight into the lives, voices, and learning paths of children in a rural African setting.

Practical and insightful strategies to help children thrive in adverse living conditions

Clinicians striving to intervene and provide treatment for children living under adverse circumstances often find themselves fighting a losing battle with forces beyond their control–drugs, disease, violence, and poverty–which reflect the everyday reality for these children and their families. In Handbook of Prevention and Treatment with Children and Adolescents, internationally recognized experts lay out state-of-the-art, empirically evaluated intervention strategies that deal directly with the sociodemographic forces that promote dysfunction and undermine treatment outcomes. Focusing on the issues and challenges faced by clinicians, this groundbreaking book provides practical, real-world solutions designed to mitigate the influence of negative environmental factors.

Coverage includes:

• The destructive influence of poverty and other social ills on child development
• Specific intervention formats and settings–from individual treatment to school- and community-based programs
• Particular problem areas and psychiatric disorders
• Early intervention and preventive approaches for such behavioral issues as substance abuse, antisocial behavior, and sexually transmitted diseases
• Recommendations for treatment of specific psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and posttraumatic stress

Most parents care deeply about their children. If that were enough, we would not see the inequalities we currently do in children's opportunities and healthy development-children out of school, children laboring, children living in poverty. While the scale of the problems can seem overwhelming, history has shown that massive progress is possible on problems that once seemed unsolvable. Within the span of less than twenty-five years, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty has been cut in half, the number of children under age five that die each day has dropped by over 12,000, and the percentage of girls attending school has climbed from just three in four to over 90 percent. National action, laws, and public policies fundamentally shape children's opportunities. Children's Chances urges a transformational shift from focusing solely on survival to targeting children's full and healthy development. Drawing on never-before-available comparative data on laws and public policies in 190 countries, Jody Heymann and Kristen McNeill tell the story of what works and what countries around the world are doing to ensure equal opportunities for all children. Covering poverty, discrimination, education, health, child labor, child marriage, and parental care, Children's Chances identifies the leaders and the laggards, highlights successes and setbacks, and provides a guide for what needs to be done to make equal chances for all children a reality.

The topic of children in the Bible has long been under-represented, but this has recently changed with the development of childhood studies in broader fields, and the work of several dedicated scholars. While many reading methods are employed in this emerging field, comparative work with children in the ancient world has been an important tool to understand the function of children in biblical texts. Children in the Bible and the Ancient World broadly introduces children in the ancient world, and specifically children in the Bible. It brings together an international group of experts who help readers understand how children are constructed in biblical literature across three broad areas: children in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East, children in Christian writings and the Greco-Roman world, and children and materiality. The diverse essays cover topics such as: vows in Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible, obstetric knowledge, infant abandonment, the role of marriage, Greek abandonment texts, ritual entry for children into Christian communities, education, sexual abuse, and the role of archeological figurines in children's lives. The volume also includes expertise in biological anthropology to study the skeletal remains of ancient children, as well as how ancient texts illuminate Mary's female maturity. The volume is written in an accessible style suitable for non-specialists, and it is equipped with a helpful resource bibliography that organizes select secondary sources from these essays into meaningful categories for further study. Children in the Bible and the Ancient World is a helpful introduction to any who study children and childhood in the ancient world. In addition, the volume will be of interest to experts who are engaged in historical approaches to biblical studies, while appreciating how the ancient world continues to illuminate select topics in biblical texts.

This book provides a practical, pedagogical perspective on conducting qualitative interviews with children and young people. From designing and choosing the type of interview through to planning, structuring, conducting, and analysing them this book is a complete toolkit. Drawing upon real-world examples and researchers' anecdotes, the authors combine both theoretical background and practical advice to introduce common issues and procedures and to help you undertake your own interviews in the field. Key topics include how to: Choose which interview style meets your and your participants' needs Maintain a safe and ethically sound research environment Incorporate participatory methods into formal interview settings Encourage participation and capture the voice of interviewees Utilise digital tools, software and methods to collect and analyse data This clear, articulate book is an essential companion for anyone interviewing children and young people.

The need for adoption work to be based upon the best available evidence is plain; but it is particularly important in the light of the radical changes that adoption has undergone in recent times. It now covers a wide range of social arrangements for children, adopters and birth parents, and presents new and often perplexing challenges. Adoption Now brings together up-to-date and authoritative research on adoption. It provides an overview of studies commissioned by the Department of Health to identify the principal messages about adoption policy and practice to emerge from its programme of research over the last few years. Roy Parker, Professor Emeritus, University of Bristol, details the most important and reliable ‘messages’ obtained from the research. These conclusions are made readily available in an accessible form, with the main points highlighted throughout the text. The studies are extensive and comprehensive, ranging across: the processes which adoption entails; children joining new families; single-parent adoption; transracial adoption; children talking about their adoption; and the support provided and needed during and after placement. This unique volume includes:

• children’s views of their experiences of being adopted
• neglected issues such as the relations between children and other members of the family
• the different stages of the adoption process
• implications of the research for both policy and practice

`In a refreshing departure from today's focus on academic testing, Comer's SDP is designed to foster the development of the whole child. In Comer's schools, children are taught not only academics but the skills and behaviors they need to be successful in school and in life' - Edward Zigler, Sterling Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Yale University Children and adolescents who enjoy healthy growth and development along six primary pathways are the students who learn well and achieve success in school and in life. But children from poorly functioning families and impoverished social networks too often find themselves without adequate preparation and support for the academic challenges that await them in kindergarten and the grades that follow. Believing that schools are uniquely situated to foster healthy development, renowned child psychiatrist Dr James P Comer and his colleagues at the Yale School Development Program (SDP) have dedicated 35 years to guiding students, schools, and educators toward academic success along the six developmental pathways of learning.

Children's Environmental Identity Development: Negotiating Inner and Outer Tensions in Natural World Socialization draws inspiration from environmental education, education for sustainability, environmental psychology, sociology, and child development to propose a theoretical framework for considering how children's identity in/with/for nature evolves through formative experiences. The natural world socialization of young children considers not only how the natural environment affects the growth and development of young children but also how children shape and influence natural settings. Such childhood relations with the environment are explicitly linked to familial, sociocultural, geographical, and educational contexts. While the book is theoretical and will be of interest to academics and students, the use of accessible language, vignettes, and figures will make it useful to teachers, policy-makers, parents, and others genuinely concerned with children's relationships with other humans and the natural world.