Jim Goddard is Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Bradford, UK. His research interests are in policy on looked after children and leaving care. Sally Mcnamee is a Research Fellow at the University of Hull, UK. Her research interests are around the sociology of childhood and children and leisure. Adrian James is Professor of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Bradford, UK and has published widely in the field of socio-legal studies. Allison James is Professor of Sociology at the University of Sheffield, UK. She has worked in the sociology/anthropology of childhood since the late 1970s.

• 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.McCormack 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.McNamee, 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

'I would certainly recommend this book to students and practitioners with interests in children and childhood'. - Michael Wyness, Children and Society