The Modern Child and the Flexible Labour Market: An Intorduction; A.T.Kjørholt PART I:THE LABOUR MARKET AND INSTITUTIONALISATION OF THE MODERN CHILDHOOD: A HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Dilemmas over Childcare inNorway, Sweden and West Germany after 1945; T.Korsvold Child Care Policies at a Crossroads: The Case of Iceland; G.B.Eydal Free Choice or Gentle Force? How can Parental Leave Change Gender Practices?; B.Brandth & E.Kvande 'Flexible Flexibility': Norwegian Politics of Daycar; M.Rantalaiho Kindergartens in Denmark - Reflections on Continuity and Change; E.Gulløv PART II: FLEXIBLE SPACES, FLEXIBLE CHILDREN? CONTEMPORARY POLICY AND PRACTICE 'Child-Centredness' and 'The Child': The Cultural Politics of Nursery Schooling in England; A.James Governed Markets and Democratic Experimentalism: Two Possibilites for Early Childhood Education and Care; P. Moss Daycare, Flexible Workers and the Combination of Work and Childcare; B.Johansen The Kindergarten as a Bazaar: Freedom of Choice and New Forms of Regulation; A.T.Kjørholt & M.Seland Children's Sense of Place: Aspects of Individualization, Flexibility and Free Choice within Preschool COtnext; G.Hallden Flexible Spaces - Flexible subjects in 'Nature': Transcending the 'Fenced' Childhood in Day Care Centres?; R.D.Nilsen Policies of Early Childhood Education and Care: Partnership, Individualisation; H.Strandell PART III: CONCLUDING THOUGHTS Users and Interested Parties: A Concluding Essay on Children's Insitutionalization; J. Qvortrup Childhood and Social Investments: Concluding Thoughts; A.T.Kjørholt and J.Qvortrup Index

This book sheds light on new research related to welfare state, child care policies, and small children's everyday lives in institutions in Europe. In uniting recent social childhood research, welfare perspectives and historical and comparative approaches, the book explores institutionalization as a feature of the modern child's life.

BERIT BRANDTH Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
GUðNÝ BJÖRK EYDAL Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Iceland, Iceland
EVA GULLOV Associate Professor at the School of Education, University of Aarhus, Denmark
GUNILLA HALDÉN Professor in Child Studies at Linköping University, Sweden
ALLISON JAMES Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for the Study of Childhood & Youth at the University of Sheffield, UK
BIRGITTE JOHANSEN PhD student at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research, NTNU, Norway
TORA KORSVOLD Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research, NTNU, Norway
ELIN KVANDE Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Political Science, NTNU, Norway
PETER MOSS Professor at Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, UK
RANDI DYBLIE NILSEN Professor at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research, NTNU, Norway
MINNA RANTALAIHO Researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research, NTNU, Norway and the Nordic Gender Institute, Finland
MONICA SELAND PhD student at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research, NTNU, Norway
HARRIET STRANDELL Docent and University Lecturer at the Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Sweden