Carol van Nijnatten is a developmental psychologist and professor social studies of child welfare at the University of Utrecht. From 2004-2009 he was also professor of social work at Radboud University, Nijmegen. His current field of research is interactional analysis of professional interventions in child health care and child welfare. He published books and articles on child welfare; children of detained parents, psychodynamic developmental psychology, dialogical self theory and institutional communication.

• Introduction; Child, welfare, agency; The development of individual agency; Social interaction and interactive agency; Social agency and social context; Diagnosis and dialogue; Change and co-construction; Dialogical management; Dialogical child welfare: conclusion.

"This is a wide-ranging exploration of child welfare, based in psychology but drawing ideas from across the human sciences. It provides a strong argument for the centrality of dialogic, narrative and language approaches to understanding children, families and their interactions with child welfare professionals." Christopher Hall, School of Medicine and Health and Wolfson Research Institute, Durham University