Children, Young People and Families - Research

This book explores how young people across different European contexts participate in decision-making and foster changes on issues that concern them and their communities, giving new insights into discourses on young people’s as active citizens across Europe.

With fascinating ethnographic and interview data, James Alexander explores the disappearance of localised relationships and the rise in youth violence in a South London housing estate. Evaluating the effectiveness of youth work programmes, he considers the impact of the gradual move from neighbourly to professional support for young people.

Children in the Global South continue to be affected by social disadvantage in our unequal post-colonial world order. With a focus on working-class children in Latin America, this book explores the challenges of promoting children’s rights in a context of decolonization.

A first of its kind, this book explores child protection systems in non-Western, low- and middle-income countries, offering a descriptive, yet analytical, account of the development and current stage of practice in twelve different countries.

Drawing on the perspectives of women and children displaced from Ukraine, as well as local authority policy makers and service providers, this book provides a unique view of the direct and indirect consequences of war in Europe and identifies the best responses to these ‘wicked issues’.

Spanning the UK, North America and Australia, this comparative study brings maternal workers’ politicized voices to the centre of contemporary debates on class, work and gender.

The book illustrates why social reproduction needs to be at the centre of a critical theory of work, care and mothering for post-pandemic times.

Anna Tarrant’s revealing research explores the dynamics and diversity of men’s caring roles in low-income households at various stages of their lives. It sheds light on men’s participation in care and the factors that affect it, including class, culture, work and the impact of austerity.

This book provides a culturally nuanced analysis of key issues relating to youth unemployment. Examining the causes and consequences of youth unemployment, it assesses ways forward to promote economic self-sufficiency.

School-age children’s everyday lives are changing as they are immersed in digital leisure and organised activities. However, our current understandings of these transitions are race-blind. Presenting the first study of middle-class British Indian families, this book reveals the salience of race and class in shaping parenting cultures and children.

This book explores Chinese young men’s views of manhood and develops a new concept of ‘elastic masculinity’ which can be stretched and forged differently in response to personal relationships and local realities.

Alice Bradbury discusses how the meritocracy myth reinforces educational inequalities and analyses how the recent educational developments of datafication and neuroscience might challenge how we classify and label children as we rebuild a post-pandemic schooling system.

This book introduces the concept of 'doing society' by exploring how Finnish youth engage in political action beyond traditional forms. Combining empirical research and theoretical innovation, it offers a holistic view of youth participation, redefining political action to include non-conventional and non-verbal expressions.