Currently, families are being subjected to increasing public attention. Interest is focussing on their potential strengths and weaknesses in determining how well children do at school. Alongside such human-development oriented expectations, families are also becoming a focus of attention as a resource for human capital in times of economic crises and criticism of the welfare state. In many European countries, parents and children are at the forefront of the welfare state and socio-educational activities in current programs and policies. The current transformation processes in the welfare state are making the relationship between families and the state more dynamic in general, and they are structuring the discourses on the childrearing, education, and child care services in the fields of both public and private responsibility. The introduction of all-day schooling in Germany also has to be viewed in this context. This is gradually changing the traditional half-day structure of German schools and shifting the borders of public and private responsibility on the levels of education, child care, and childrearing institutions. The attention given to parental childrearing and educational responsibility within the context of current national and international debates clearly underlines the fact that issues in private life are increasingly entering the public discourse and becoming subject to attempts at socio-political control. This raises the assumption of an increasing politicization of parenthood in the (post) welfare state that is focusing more and more attention on the structural conditions of gainful employment and child care as well as on the current relations between the genders. This context particularly emphasizes the time and care regimes that decisively determine the practices in daily family life and the utilization of all-day education settings.

In April 2009, an inspiring international conference was held at Bielefeld on the topic "Children and the Good Life: New Challenges for Research on Children." The focus was on how we can define and measure a "good life" for children growing up in the modern world. This tied in with discussions on how convincing universalistic theories are, what research on children can contribute, and how children themselves can be integrated into the research process and debates on the "good life."

Discourses and the production of knowledge on the "good life" or "well-being" require a guiding idea or a theoretical frame. This frame can come from the feminist ethic of care or from the Human and Children's Rights Convention, from the idea of welfare, or from the Capability Approach.

Die Texte in diesem Band von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern, von Aktivisten und betroffenen Menschen und Journalisten widmen sich verschiedenen Aspekten der Aufarbeitung sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs insbesondere unterschiedlichen Tatkontexten wie der Familie, dem Sport, Schulen oder den Kirchen.  Sexueller Kindesmissbrauch geschieht in allen Bereichen unserer Gesellschaft, in denen Kinder aufwachsen. Dennoch ist das Thema weitgehend tabuisiert. Die Aufarbeitung sexueller Gewalt trägt dazu bei, die Gesellschaft zu sensibilisieren, vergangenes Unrecht sichtbar und die Stimmen betroffener Menschen hörbar zu machen. Der Blick in die Vergangenheit ist notwendig, um erkennen, warum die Gewalt geschehen konnte, warum Kindern nicht geholfen, weggeschaut, vertuscht und geschwiegen wurde, aber vor allem, damit wir wissen, wie wir Kinder und Jugendliche in Zukunft besser schützen können.

Currently, families are being subjected to increasing public attention. Interest is focussing on their potential strengths and weaknesses in determining how well children do at school. Alongside such human-development oriented expectations, families are also becoming a focus of attention as a resource for human capital in times of economic crises and criticism of the welfare state. In many European countries, parents and children are at the forefront of the welfare state and socio-educational activities in current programs and policies. The current transformation processes in the welfare state are making the relationship between families and the state more dynamic in general, and they are structuring the discourses on the childrearing, education, and child care services in the fields of both public and private responsibility. The introduction of all-day schooling in Germany also has to be viewed in this context. This is gradually changing the traditional half-day structure of German schools and shifting the borders of public and private responsibility on the levels of education, child care, and childrearing institutions. The attention given to parental childrearing and educational responsibility within the context of current national and international debates clearly underlines the fact that issues in private life are increasingly entering the public discourse and becoming subject to attempts at socio-political control. This raises the assumption of an increasing politicization of parenthood in the (post) welfare state that is focusing more and more attention on the structural conditions of gainful employment and child care as well as on the current relations between the genders. This context particularly emphasizes the time and care regimes that decisively determine the practices in daily family life and the utilization of all-day education settings.

In April 2009, an inspiring international conference was held at Bielefeld on the topic "Children and the Good Life: New Challenges for Research on Children." The focus was on how we can define and measure a "good life" for children growing up in the modern world. This tied in with discussions on how convincing universalistic theories are, what research on children can contribute, and how children themselves can be integrated into the research process and debates on the "good life."

Discourses and the production of knowledge on the "good life" or "well-being" require a guiding idea or a theoretical frame. This frame can come from the feminist ethic of care or from the Human and Children's Rights Convention, from the idea of welfare, or from the Capability Approach.

In diesem Buch werden die Impulse des Schriftstellers, Kinderarztes und Padagogen Janusz Korczak (1878-1942) fur die Kindheitsforschung beschrieben und analysiert. Als ausgewiesener Praktiker und (bislang unterschatzter) Theoretiker hat Korczak viele Forschungsmethoden fur den Umgang mit Kindern und fur das Erkennen des Kindes erprobt und weiterentwickelt: die Beobachtung und Beschreibung des Kindes, die Selbstbeobachtung des Erwachsenen, Experimente und statistische Untersuchungen zum Sozialverhalten des Kindes, den Nutzen der schriftlichen Kommunikation sowie das Gesprach und das Schreiben mit Kindern.

Wie sehen Bedingungen des Aufwachsens und Bildungschancen von Kindern und Jugendlichen in muslimisch gepragten Kontexten aus? Theoretische Diskurse und empirische Befunde einer Tagung, die erstmals einen dezidiert internationalen und interdisziplinaren wissenschaftlichen Austausch ermoeglicht hat, werden in diesem Band der Reihe 'Kinder, Kindheiten, Kindheitsforschung' vorgelegt. Die Bedeutung von Religion, Armut und Gewalt, Erziehung und Bildung in unterschiedlichen muslimisch gepragten Lebenswelten wird ebenso thematisiert wie auch verschiedene padagogische Institutionen, Generationenlagen und das Geschlechterverhaltnis in der Turkei, AEgypten, Israel oder im Libanon, aber auch in postsowjetischen Staaten.

Das Handbuch stellt die Frage nach der zukunftigen Rolle der nachwachsenden Generation in der neuen Bundesrepublik vor dem Hintergrund der prekaren Situation der Jugend in den oestlichen Bundeslandern.

Das Thema der Verletzlichkeit von Kindern und in der Kindheit wird in diesem Band aus unterschiedlichen interdisziplinaren Perspektiven aufgegriffen und offensiv in die erziehungswissenschaftliche Diskussion gebracht. Den Hintergrund hierzu bildet die Beobachtung, dass die sozialwissenschaftliche Kindheitsforschung mit ihrer starken Akteurszentierung Verletzlichkeit als moegliches, vielleicht sogar unausweichliches Moment von Kindheit zu meiden scheint und es damit eher anderen Disziplinen wie der Medizin, der Evolutionstheorie, den Neurowissenschaften oder der Psychologie uberlasst. Die in diesem Band versammelten Analysen widmen sich dieser kindheitstheoretischen Herausforderung.