This International Volume of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth shows the breadth of current empirical research that focuses on children and youth around the world. Coming from a range of methodological and theoretical orientations, this volume showcases the lives of children and the policies that shape children's lives on five continents. Across these research articles, it becomes clear that we cannot continue to assume a certain meaning of childhood, because this concept is bound by both cultural and structural factors. Cultural expectations influence how societies view children and how children view themselves. A handful of these studies show how immigrant children and youth provide particularly interesting insight as they navigate more than one cultural context. Structural factors also become salient, as children come from unequal backgrounds, different levels of economic development, and face varying political concerns. While these papers come from different doorsteps of the world, cultural and structural threads of continuity connect them as meaningful for children. This volume illustrates how international childhood researchers can use current concepts and theories into unlikely contexts exposing their limitations and helping to inform more versatile and robust lines of thinking for children and youth studies.

This volume contains a diverse set of chapters that offer a good balance of quantitative and qualitative methodologies; focus on children, youth, or both children and youth; and come from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Two prominent themes of the volume are adolescents' transition to adulthood and children's time-use issues. Several chapters address each of these issues, including one examining children's labor in Senegal. Two ethnographic studies are included: one analyzes student-teacher interaction in an urban high-school math class, while the other examines friendship development and maintenance of early elementary-aged African American girls. The volume also includes a policy analysis of medical insurance provision for low income children, and a response to an earlier chapter on children's rights that appeared in Volume 8.

This volume of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth showcases timely and important work of active, early-career sociologists helping to define the direction of the sub-field. Their work shares basic premises and concerns: Children and youth are active agents in their own "socialization," produce meaning and action collaboratively with peers, and struggle for agency in various social contexts. These themes shape essentially all of the contributions.

The volume is organized in two parts. Following the Introduction, six chapters make up Part One, "Empirical Studies." Two quantitative analyses lead off: first an examination of residential mobility, peer networks and life-course transitions; second, a look at adolescents' participation in a particular social movement. Two ethnographic studies follow - here the foci are "Zero Tolerance" school discipline policies, and female athletes' construction of femininity. A comparative content analysis of teen magazine advice columns, and a qualitative study of construction of "adoptive family" identities, round out Part One.

Three chapters constitute Part Two, "Innovations in Theory and Research Methods." The first offers an analysis of two films that explore children's struggle for agency and control. The next chapter develops a typology of children's participation in social movements, employing fascinating first-person narrative accounts. The final chapter demonstrates the unique ability of group interviews to capture processes through which adolescents accomplish group talk, develop shared perspectives, and construct gender identities.

Coming from a range of methodological and theoretical orientations, this volume showcases the lives of children and the policies that shape children's lives on five continents. Across these research articles, it becomes clear that we cannot continue to assume a certain meaning of childhood, because this concept is bound by both cultural and structural factors. Cultural expectations influence how societies view children and how children view themselves. A handful of these studies show how immigrant children and youth provide particularly interesting insight as they navigate more than one cultural context. Structural factors also become salient, as children come from unequal backgrounds, different levels of economic development, and face varying political concerns. While these papers come from different doorsteps of the world, cultural and structural threads of continuity connect them as meaningful for children. This volume illustrates how international childhood researchers can use current concepts and theories into unlikely contexts exposing their limitations and helping to inform more versatile and robust lines of thinking for children and youth studies.

The volume is organized in two parts. Following the Introduction, six chapters make up Part One, 'Empirical Studies'. Two quantitative analyses lead off: first an examination of residential mobility, peer networks and life-course transitions; second, a look at adolescents' participation in a particular social movement. Two ethnographic studies follow - here the foci are 'Zero Tolerance' school discipline policies, and female athletes' construction of femininity. A comparative content analysis of teen magazine advice columns, and a qualitative study of construction of 'adoptive family' identities, round out Part One. Three chapters constitute Part Two, 'Innovations in Theory and Research Methods'.The first offers an analysis of two films that explore childrens' struggle for agency and control. The next chapter develops a typology of children's participation in social movements, employing fascinating first-person narrative accounts. The final chapter demonstrates the unique ability of group interviews to capture processes through which adolescents accomplish group talk, develop shared perspectives, and construct gender identities.

This volume contains a diverse set of chapters that offer a good balance of quantitative and qualitative methodologies; focus on children, youth, or both children and youth; and come from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Two prominent themes of the volume are adolescents' transition to adulthood and children's time-use issues. Several chapters address each of these issues, including one examining children's labor in Senegal. Two ethnographic studies are included: one analyzes student-teacher interaction in an urban high-school math class, while the other examines friendship development and maintenance of early elementary-aged African American girls. The volume also includes a policy analysis of medical insurance provision for low income children, and a response to an earlier chapter on children's rights that appeared in Volume 8.