The Modern Child and the Flexible Labour Market

This anthology presents new research related to welfare state, child care policies and small children's every day lives in early childhood education and care in institutions in Europe. By uniting recent social childhood research, welfare perspectives as well as historical and comparative approaches, [...]
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This anthology presents new research related to welfare state, child care policies and small children's every day lives in early childhood education and care in institutions in Europe. By uniting recent social childhood research, welfare perspectives as well as historical and comparative approaches, institutionalization as a feature of modern child life is discussed. The anthology takes as a point of departure a close connection between labor market and work life on one side and development of particular care arrangementS for small children on another. Both the labour market and day-care institutions are influenced by similar concepts such as flexibility, neo-liberal approaches, and user-orientation. In light of recent changes in ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) policy and various adult constructions of (good) childhoods, this collection explores how girls and boys are together working out identities like the 'active and participant child', 'the natural child', 'the flexible child', and 'the individual child'.