PART ONE: CHILDREN IN THEORY AND HISTORY Introduction: The Politics of Childhood – An Overview; A.James & A.James Interpreting Children’s Needs: Contested Assumptions in the Provision of Welfare; N.Thomas The Politics of Modern Childhood: American Socialization and the Crisis of Individualism; J.Block The ‘Shame of America’: African-American Civil Rights and the Politics of Childhood; R.de Schweinitz PART TWO: CHILDREN, MONEY AND WORK Child Labour and Children’s Rights: Policy Issues in Three Affluent Societies; W.Heesterman Entertaining Guests or Entertaining the Guests: Children’s Emotional Labour in Hotels, Pubs and Boarding Houses; J.Seymour Growing Up in Poverty While Living in an Affluent Society: Personal Experiences and Coping Strategies of Dutch Poor Children; T.van der Hoek PART THREE: CHILDREN AT SCHOOL Mobilising Family Solidarity? Rights, Responsibilities and Secondary Schooling in Urban Mexico; M.Blasco ‘Gypsy Children Can’t Learn’: Roma in the Hungarian Education System; A.Tremlett The Invisible Child in Education Law; A.Blair PART FOUR: CHILDREN, POWER AND DECISION-MAKING Placing Children on the Political Agenda: New Zealand’s Agenda for Children; M.Brown & J.Mc Cormack The Representation of Children in the Media: Aspects of Agency and Literacy; M.Messenger Davies & N.Mosdell Family Law and the Construction of Childhood in England and Wales; S.Mc Namee, A.James & A.James Meeting the Challenge? Voicing Children and Young People in Mental Health Research V.Coppock Future Directions for the Study of Childhood; J.Goddard

ANN BLAIR is Lecturer in Law at the University of Leeds, UK MARIBEL BLASCO is Assistant Professor of Spanish American Studies at the Department of Intercultural Communication and Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark JIM BLOCK is a Lecturer in Political Theory and American Studies at De Paul University, USA MAREE BROWN is Principal Analyst in the Ministry of Social Development in New Zealand VICKI COPPOCK is Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Childhood Studies at Edge Hill College of Higher Education, UK WIEBINA HEESTERMAN is a Research Student in the School of Law, University of Warwick, UK TAMARA VAN DER HOEK is a Ph D Student in the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University, Netherlands JALEH MCCORMACK is a Research and Administrative Officer at the Child Health and Research Policy Unit, City University, London, UK MÁIRE MESSENGER DAVIES is Professor of Media Studies and Director of the Centre for Media Research, University of Ulster at Coleraine, UK NICK MOSDELL is a Lecturer in the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, UK REBECCA DE SCHWEINITZ is an Independent Scholar living in Portland, Oregon, USA JULIE SEYMOUR is Senior Lecturer in Social Research and Head of Department for Comparative and Applied Social Sciences, University of Hull, UK NIGEL THOMAS is Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at the University of Wales, Swansea, UK ANNABEL TREMLETT is a Research Student at the Department for Education and Professional Studiesat King’s College, London, UK