This book provides insights into the theoretical framework of 'tensions' related to care for children and the elderly. It analyzes if, and under what conditions, welfare state reforms have contributed to strengthening existing tensions, creating new tensions, or relaxing such tensions.

This book is about the relationships and networks - social capital - that children and young people have in and out of school. Social capital has become of increasing interest to policy makers but there has been little evidence of how it operates in practice. In this unique collection, the social capital of children and young people, and in one case parents and teachers, is explored in a wide range of formal and informal settings. The contributors to the book, who include academic researchers and educational professionals, provide in-depth accounts of social capital being developed and used by children and young people. They offer critical reflections on the significance of social capital and on the experiences of researching the social capital of sometimes vulnerable people. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned with how children and young people get along, get by and get on.

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.

Children in Culture is one of the first fully multi- and interdisciplinary collections of essays on theoretical approaches to childhood and formulates and presents new and exciting ideas about the construction of childhood as a cultural identity. The ten original chapters have been written especially for this volume by some of the most eminent writers on childhood in their fields: psychology (Valerie Walkerdine; Rex and Wendy Stainton Rogers), history (Jenny Bourne Taylor; Kimberly Reynolds; Paul Yates), critical theory (Erica Burman), literary criticism (Margarida Morgado; Sara Thornton), children's literature criticism (Karin Lesnik-Oberstein; Stephen Thomson), and film and drama theory (Joe Kelleher).

Coping With Your Grown Children is the only book to analyze-and lay out specific coping strategies for dealing with-the problems today's parents face with their adult offspring such as: * failure of the child to really "grow up" or achieve full potential * unemptied nests * moving back home after broken marriages * turning your home into a "daycare center" for your grandchildren * substance abuse, cult involvement, trouble with the law * alternative lifestyles or homosexuality * physical or psychiatric problems * or maybe you just think there's a problem!

Drawing from discussions that pulled together child researchers working near the borders of Mexico, the United States and Canada, this book explores how material and metaphoric borders give way to young people's experimentations with cultural, social and political change. The contributors highlight the capacities of children to revolutionize thought and practice through creative re-imagining of the boundaries, borders, events, circumstances and familial relations that affect their everyday lives. The first section, in different ways, highlights borders and movements through them as a bricolage of images, symbols, tensions and joys. In the second section, the idea of a portable border is explored in three chapters that consider a migrants' lifecourse, citizenship and political activism respectively. The last section of the book brings together three chapters that uncover how youth resist, confront and transform the borders that envelop their lives. By weaving narratives pertaining to young people's creative stories, transnational migrations, personal identities, pen-pal programs, masculinites, inter-generational change, border crossings, political activism and addictions, the contributors in toto raise the idea of young people taking bounded and embodied events, places and institutions and moving them towards something emancipatory sin fronteras - without borders. This book was published as a special issue of Children's Geographies.

This book brings together recent UK studies into children's experiences and practices around food in a range of contexts, linking these to current policy and practice perspectives. It reveals that food works not only on a material level as sustenance but also on a symbolic level as something that can stand for thoughts, feelings, and relationships. The three broad contexts of schools, families and care (residential homes and foster care) are explored to show the ways in which both children and adults use food. Food is used as a means by which adults care for children and is also something through which adults manage their own feelings and relationships to each other which in turn impact on children's experiences. The book examines the power of food in our daily lives and the way in which it can be used as a medium by individuals to exert power and resistance, establish collective identities and notions of the self and to express moralities about notions of 'proper' family routines and 'good' and 'healthy' lifestyle choices. It identifies inter-generational and intra-generational differences and commonalities in regard to the uses of and experiences around food across a range of studies conducted with children and young people. This book was published as a special issue of Children's Geographies.

This book reveals the dramatic stories of twenty outstandingly gifted people as they grew from early promise to maturity in Britain. Recorded over the last thirty-five years by award-winning psychologist, Joan Freeman, these fascinating accounts reveal the frustrations and triumphs of her participants, and investigates why some fell by the wayside whilst others reached fame and fortune.

These exceptional people possess a range of intellectual, social and emotional gifts in fields such as mathematics, the arts, music and spirituality. Through their particular abilities, they were often confronted with extra emotional challenges, such as over-anxious and pushy parents, teacher put-downs, social trip-wires, boredom and bullying in school and conflicting life choices. Their stories illustrate how seemingly innocuous events could have devastating life-long consequences, and confront the reader with intriguing questions such as: Does having a brilliant mind help when you are ethnically different or suffering serious depression? How does a world-class pianist cope when repetitive strain injury strikes, or a young financier when he hits his first million? What is the emotional impact of grade-skipping?

Joan Freeman's insights into the twists and turns of these lives are fascinating and deeply moving. She shows us that while fate has a part to play, so does a personal outlook which can see and grab a fleeting chance, overcome great odds, and put in the necessary hard work to lift childhood prodigy to greatness. Readers will identify with many of the intriguing aspects of these people's lives, and perhaps learn something about themselves too.

After being questioned by a parent about how sports affects children, Griffin examined the impact of sports on children and reflected upon his own experiences with sports. What effect does sports have on work habits, social skills, confidence, independence, and aspirations? Does a sports experience provide the foundation for achievement in school and later life? Is competition good or harmful? What about the effects of sports involvement on girls? What are the characteristics of good athletes? How can parents help their children be successful in sports?

Griffin shares with parents and other readers his investigations of the published research pertaining to these questions and offers his own experiences and analyses. He asserts that sports is best assessed as it relates to the central issues children and adolescents confront while growing up--the agenda of the childhood, as he calls it. Griffin's explorations lead him to an examination of schools, professional sports, race and class, and the popular media as they affect children's interest and involvement in sports. He also investigates the phenomena of achievement (not just in sports) and good parenting.

Over the past decade, the European Union and national policy-makers alike have paid more attention to childhood poverty and children's rights. Whether this has led to better policies, and whether these policies have in turn resulted in less childhood poverty and more human dignity, remains debatable. Children's rights may provide some common ground for the different perspectives on the causes of poverty. They also introduce specific process requirements, in particular the participation of the poor. At the same time, children's rights may gain from an encounter with child poverty studies, not least in grasping the complexity of child poverty and in making a realistic assessment of their own potential for addressing child poverty. This book introduces several approaches in the field of child poverty and children's rights studies, and identifies intersections between different theoretical approaches from both domains. It is a collaborative project of Centrum OASeS and the UNICEF Chair in Children's Rights, both located at the University of Antwerp. The Chair, established in 2007, acts as a knowledge broker of children's rights within the academic community and between the academic community and policy and practice, through teaching, research, and service to the community. The research topics of the Centrum OASeS include poverty and other forms of social exclusion, ethnic minorities, urban policy, social economy and supported employment, and social networks.

"Childhood in Question" explores the historical development, from the 1600s to the 1960s, of childhood experience. Drawing on artifacts as diverse as state papers, legal records, diaries, letters and oral sources, the authors probe a series of key issues: the definition of "the child" and the formation of identity; the emotional world of childhood; the changing attitudes of the state to family intimacy and parent-child relations; the sexuality of children; children and authority; and children and crime.

Children and questions of moral behaviour are prominent social discourses. Adult attitudes towards children and their recognition of right and wrong impact upon society deeply, shaping the ways in which we think about children's participation, their citizenship and how they are 'governed' within the community. But upon what basis are such practices and policies built and how do they reflect the reality of social life for children? This work argues that much of society's thinking in relation to children and questions around social behaviour are linked to misplaced assumptions that are routed in views from the past. However, it is by engaging with children though a sociological perspective that it becomes clear that morality is not something that just happens to children but is part of their everyday lives.

Henry Giroux continues his critique of the US political and popular culture 's influence on the lives of our children.

In his controversial new book, Giroux argues that the US is at war with young people. No longer seen as the future of a democratic society, youth are now derided by politicians looking for quick-fix solutions to crime and demonized by the popular media. This perception of fear and disdain is being translated into social policy . Instead of providing a decent education to young people, we offer them the increasing potential of being incarcerated. Instead of guaranteeing them decent health care, we serve them more standardized tests. There's a war on in the US these days, and Giroux sees our youth as the target.

This volume constitutes a commentary on Article 17 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is part of the series, A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides an article by article analysis of all substantive, organizational and procedural provisions of the CRC and its two Optional Protocols. For every article, a comparison with related human rights provisions is made, followed by an in-depth exploration of the nature and scope of State obligations deriving from that article. The series constitutes an essential tool for actors in the field of children's rights, including academics, students, judges, grassroots workers, governmental, non- governmental and international officers. The series is sponsored by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office.

This book argues that with the rise of market fundamentalism and the ensuing economic and financial crisis, youth are facing a crisis unlike that of any other generation. With the collapse of the welfare state, youth are no longer seen as a social investment but as troubling and, in some cases, disposable, especially poor minority youth. Caught between the discourses of consumerism and a powerful crime-control-complex, young people are increasingly either viewed as commodities or are subjected to the dictates of an ever expanding criminal justice system.

Constructing a new analytic of youth, Giroux explores the current conditions of young people and their everyday experiences within this emerging crime complex, a politics of disposability, and the ever present market-driven forces of commercialization and commodification. Drawing upon the work of theorists such as Zygmunt Bauman, Judith Butler, Agamben, Foucault, and others as a theoretical foundation for addressing the growth of a rigid market fundamentalism and a punishing state, Giroux explores both the increasing militarization and commercialization of schools and other public spheres, and what can happen to a society in which young people are increasingly portrayed as dangerous and, hence, no longer appear to be a referent for a democratic future. But Giroux does more than examine the implications this new war on youth has for American society, he also analyses the role that educators, parents, intellectuals, and others can play in both challenging the plight of young people deepening and extending the promise of a better future and a sustainable and viable democracy.http: //www.henryagiroux.com/

Leading scholars summarize the current research on risk, protection, and resilience in the context of youth violence and its implications for practice with children and families. It describes an emerging framework for understanding social and health problems and for developing more effective programs for interventions. This book describes resilient children by examining risk factors for violence and explores the factors that lead some children to resist or adapt to risk.

The concept of resilience has been applied to family, school, neighborhood, and organizational contexts. Educational, family, and community resilience are used as the framework to describe social systems that possess risk factors. By understanding why some systems with risk factors are adaptable, information for assessment can be applied to service plans, that will be more effective in treating children at risk of antisocial, aggressive behavior.

The idea of universal human rights has been perhaps the most contentious concept of the twentieth century. Originally presented as a response to the atrocities of the past and an attempt to stifle the potential ills of the future, the concept has been under heated assault by adherents to the concept of 'cultural relativism.' The basic conflict between these two extreme perspectives lies with the degree to which either should be the primary consideration when dealing with the great diversity of peoples worldwide. While proponents of universal human rights believe that a fundamental group of human rights exist and can be applied uniformly throughout the world, cultural relativists are primarily concerned with protecting and understanding, usually in functionalist terms, the diversity of cultures worldwide. This overarching conflict is the underlying focus of Cultural Relativism in the Face of the West. Billet examines the debate between the uniform application of universal human rights and cultural relativism. In so doing, Billet outlines the foundations of both schools of thought and provides a history of their evolution. The book also examines case studies that involve either women or children and are typically viewed by the West as violations of fundamental human rights.

A study of childhood in South Asia, this work addresses topics including the psychosocial concerns of children in Kabul, Afghanistan; Pakistani Punjabi Christian children in an urban low-income settlement; and the effects of insurgency, poverty and politicization of education in Nepal.

Human rights tend to focus on the relationship between the individual and the state the individual is the rights-holder, the state is the duty-holder. Children's rights bring a third player much more into the picture, namely the parents. Although, legally speaking, they are not duty-holders under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, parents do have a number of responsibilities under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights instruments. Child rearing may still be considered by many to be within the private domain, i.e. a matter of concern only within the relationship between children and their parents, with the exception of instances of child abuse or neglect. However, States may be obligated to turn parental responsibilities into national legal duties if this is needed to improve the legal and social position of children. In this volume, child-rearing responsibilities are examined in the light of children's rights and other human rights. All the contributions focus in particular on the proposal to introduce an upbringing (or parenting) pledge. The upbringing pledge contains not only a statement of lasting commitment towards the child, but also an explicit declaration of commitment to respect and promote the rights of the child both as a person and as a human being who is utterly dependent upon parents for wellbeing and the development of his or her personality. By means of the upbringing pledge as a child rights-based social institution, the responsibilities of society and the state towards both parents and children are re-affirmed as well.

The theme of this volume, studies in macro-micro influences on children, in their pathways to adulthood is aimed at examining the points of intersect between individual and family level reactions to the socioeconomic forces buffeting all industrialised societies. The papers in this volume allow understanding of the larger context which children acquire their experience and capacities for growth.

Karen Orr Vered demonstrates how children's media play contributes to their acquisition of media literacy. Theorizing after-school care as intermediary space, a large-scale ethnographic study informs this theory-rich and practical discussion of children's media use beyond home and classroom.

In this timely study, high profile researchers contribute to the burgeoning field of the social studies of childhood with original and often surprising perspectives and approaches. They demonstrate that far from being esoteric or negligible, childhood is part and parcel of the social fabric in both poor and affluent countries. With chapters on children's agency in small worlds and childhood's placement in large scale relationships, the book shows not only the variety of childhood(s), but also suggests that much is common in a generational context.

'Guaranteed free of unicorns and princesses, it's fun, empowering fiction for 5-8 year olds.' David Nicholls, author of One Day Join Katy, Cassie, Zia and their new friend Luca on a series of amazing adventures as they work together to save the planet... When Cassie's cousin Luca joins the girls' school, they have the perfect idea to make him feel included: invite him to a magical playdate adventure. Together with Thunder the cat, they decide to go on a wild journey to the African savannah in their very own flying safari jeep. But when they arrive, the animals are in a frenzy. The watering holes are drying up and soon there won't be anything left for them to drink! Luca has an idea that might just save the day - but will the friends be able to pull it off?

According to the study conducted by Gallup Organization, only a minority of Americans experience consistent normative motivation for engaging with other people's children. Social norms theory suggests that adults are more likely to get deeply involved if that involvement is viewed as highly important, and if they perceive a social expectation to do so.

This volume examines the nature of social norms in general and in relationship to children and adolescents. The book examines the complex dynamics of understanding the appropriate roles of parents and other adults in young people's healthy development. The volume also presents the study's findings in detail, including numerous areas of consensus among American adults, differences among American adults, and the gap between perceived importance and actual engagement. A wide-ranging literature synthesis suggests implications for both personal and collective actions with potential to change norms that inhibit engagement and to strengthen values that encourage engagement.