Drawing on the latest international research, this book examines ideas on parenthood and the 'globalization' of childhood to provide new insights into the dynamics and ambivalences involved in their simultaneous reframing. This truly global volume will appeal to anthropologists and sociologists with interests in gender, childhood studies and the sociology of the family.

Tatjana Thelen is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Haldis Haukanes is Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Health Promotion at the University of Bergen, Norway.

Chapter 1 Parenting After the Century of the Child, Tatjana Thelen, Haldis Haukanes; Chapter 2 Parenthood and Childhood, Haldis Haukanes, Tatjana Thelen; Part I Travelling Ideals about Relatedness, Family and Parenting Obligations; Chapter 3 What is a Good Mother? Historical Shifts, Divergent Models in Urban Japan, Susan D. Holloway, Yoko Yamamoto, Sawako Suzuki; Chapter 4 No School without Foster Families in Northern Benin, Erdmute Alber; Chapter 5 Growing up Nuclear? Young Czechs' and Tunisians' Visions of Family, Parenting and Gender Roles, Haldis Haukanes, Marit Tjomsland; Part II Negotiating Responsibilities in Education and Child Welfare Institutions; Chapter 6 Child Welfare,'In the Best Interests of the Child', Tiffany McComsey; Chapter 8 Privatizing Parenthood - Modernizing Childhood? Paradoxes of School Reform in Eastern Germany, Tatjana Thelen; Chapter 9 Representations of Parenting Practices of Native and Immigrant Families in Institutional Care Service Settings in Barcelona, Marta Bertran; Part III Translating International Legislation to Local Settings; Chapter 10 Custody and Coming of Age, Randy Frances Kandel, Anne Griffiths; Chapter 11 Child Rights or Wrongs, Mai Bente Snipstad, Gro Th. Lie, Dagfinn Winje;