Books

Childhoods, Real and Imagined: Volume 1, An Introduction to Critical Realism and Childhood Studies by Priscilla Alderson, (Routledge, May 2013, £24.99). This new book sets out twelve basic ideas in critical realism to show how they can increase our research understanding of children’s lives.

The book is a collection of papers offering new research and insights into the role and potential agency of adolescent girls in meeting emerging global challenges such as demographic transitions, economic crises, climate change and the expansion of technology and innovations.

Social pedagogical work is a field of practice that is indebted to and illuminated by aspects of knowledge from sociology and psychology, but many practitioners feel that social pedagogical theories are too abstract and distant from the challenges faced in practice. In Practical Social Pedagogy Jan Storo shows the reader for the first time how the theories and practices of social pedagogy interlock.

This innovative guide brings the benefits of life story work – traditionally undertaken with younger children – to young people and adolescents. Digital life story work charts new territory through the use of computers, free software, smartphones and camcorders in a range of contemporary and exciting ways.

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.

Understanding how poverty and inequalities affect children is central to understanding the impact of the MDGs and development of the post-2015 agenda. This paper draws together research from across the Young Lives longitudinal study of child poverty to answer questions about how inequality shapes children’s development.

Research on and with children in cross-cultural contexts presents several challenges—concerning consent, methodology, risk and responsibility. In the volume Cross-Cultural Child Research, experienced researchers share their reflections on these issues. The book is published by the Norwegian National Research Ethics Committees. The book launch is arranged by the hosted by the Norwegian Centre for Child Research, NTNU.

Modelo Interinstitucional de Atención a Víctimas de Trata de Personas: Propuesta de contenido de un modelo interinstitucional de atención a víctimas de trata de personas, a partir de los conocimientos y la experiencia de prestadores de servicios publicada por La Fundación Renacer I.A.P. derivado del proyecto: Elaboración de un modelo institucional de atención a víctimas de trata de personas, recatando la labor de la sociedad civil y fundamentándolo con estudios científicos.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2012 KIDS COUNT® Data Book shows both promising progress and discouraging setbacks for the U.S.'s children: While their academic achievement and health improved in most states, their economic well-being continued to decline. This year’s Data Book uses an updated index of 16 indicators of child well-being, organized into four categories: Economic Well-Being, Health, Education, and Family and Community. The new methodology reflects the tremendous advances in child development research since the first KIDS COUNT Data Book in 1990.

This report reviews recent trends in international migration, describing the size of current foreign-born populations across countries and analysing factors associated to the size and nature of these populations, reviews a set of important differences and similarities across educational systems and gives a brief description of population sizes across countries. Download the book online.

Edited by Frm. Usha Nayar.

Published by SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd 

Release date: January 2013 

ISBN-13: 9788132109655

372 pages 

David Howe's new book examines what empathy is, why we have it and how it develops. He explores the important part empathy plays in child development and therapeutic work as well as its significance for how society organises itself. 

This cross-disciplinary text is suitable for students, trainees and practitioners in the fields of Counselling and Psychotherapy, as well as students of Social Work, Psychology, Childhood Studies, Nursing, Youth Work and Teaching.

The book is about 93 young New Zealanders who grew up during the economic and social reforms of the 1980s and 1990s (often referred to as Rogernomics). Participants were interviewed in their final year of high school and again 12–18 months later. The book’s focus is the identity work of these young people. The book connects the stories of young people with the wider social and economic story of NZ during the last three decades. Young people’s own voices are woven together with theoretical analysis to show how participants worked and re-worked the possibilities, opportunities and constraints of their times.

Young Citizens: Experiences Of Participation In Latin America (Jovenes Ciudadanos: Experiencias De Participacion En America Latina) is a new book in Spanish edited by Graciela Tonon and Santiago Aragón, UNI-COM Faculty of Social Sciences of Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Argentina.

The book is organized in seven chapters written by authors that are members of different Childwatch International key institutions of Latin America's network.

This volume focuses on the various aspects of teacher education which need to be addressed in order for the wider Millennium Goals to be achieved, but more importantly, so that each African child living within sub-Saharan Africa will have the right to a quality education. 

Of particular interest to the education researcher and policy maker, this volume’s contributors look at the various issues and challenges around the teacher profession, particularly in relation to resources and practices within sub-Saharan Africa. The contributors examine the issue of building research capacity for educational research within teacher education Colleges and explore the concept of education for sustainable development with the view to improving the development of quality teacher education within the global South. 

How can sociology inform our understanding of young people's experiences? Introducing core theories by drawing on a range of cultural resources - from pioneering research to genre-defining films - this book demonstrates how a sociological imagination can enhance informal educational and social welfare approaches to work with young people.

This book brings together for the first time a wide range of leading scholars from three disciplinary perspectives (children’s rights, psychosocial studies and transitional justice). It aims at enhancing a multidisciplinary and comprehensive approach to the rehabilitation, reintegration and reconciliation processes of children and adolescents affected by armed conflict.

In this newly published book, 24 Young Lives children give us a unique insight into how their lives are changing as they are growing up. You can read the stories of 24 of them in the new book, Changing Lives in a Changing World and in a special section of the website .

The book is published by Young Lives: An International Study of Poverty.

Author: Nikki van der Gaag with Kirrily Pells and Caroline Knowles

Young People Leaving Care: Supporting Pathways to Adulthood By Mike Stein, explores the journey from care to adulthood through the main challenges these young people face: in being in settled accommodation, in fulfilling their potential in education, employment or training, and in achieving and maintaining good health and a positive sense of wellbeing.

This book explores the development of youth policy and youth work in Ireland from the mid nineteenth century to the present day.

Critical times, critical issues in Ireland

The broad array of chapters addresses the changing and complex landscape of policy, practice and law. It discusses the politics of child rights, the impact of child abuse within the Catholic church, diverse approaches to service delivery and professional practice, the media and representations of child protection practice, and the relationship between research evidence and practice.

This collection places childrens issues at the centre of understandings of human development. Using Amartya Sens 'Capability Approach', the contributors to this book draw on new tools and theoretical perspectives to understand the role of children in human development.

The 21st century starts with vast inequalities for children in terms of income, access to food, water, health, education, housing, or employment for their families.

The world’s financial and economic crisis has taken a toll on children and poor households. High food and commodity prices, unemployment and austerity measures have aggravated persistent inequalities and contributed to a substantial rise in hunger and social tensions.

Child poverty is a central and present part of global life, with hundreds of millions of children around the world enduring tremendous suffering and deprivation of their most basic needs. Despite its long history, research on poverty and development has only relatively recently examined the issue of child poverty as a distinct topic of concern. This book brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty.