Sarane Spence Boocock – författare

Kids in Context is a comprehensive overview of the new and rapidly growing field of sociology of children and childhoods. It includes explication of theories and empirical evidence about children's social worlds, from their day-to-day experiences in their homes, neighborhoods and schools to the impact on their lives of political, economic, and social trends at the global level. Alternative perceptions of children and childhood and the implications of children's subordinate social status will be examined. In keeping with the authors' view of children as active participants in society rather than simply as passive recipients of adult care and control, each chapter contains data gathered directly from children, and examples of children's contributions to their families, communities and societies are noted. In a pair of chapters on family life, the authors examine the mutual effects of kids and parents on each other as well as the implications of changing family structures and modes of child rearing. Other chapters are devoted to the dynamics of children's group life and the creation and dissemination of children's culture, both locally and globally. Variations in childhoods resulting from inequalities of race and ethnicity, social class and gender are compared, with special attention to groups of children who have been marginalized or treated mainly as "social problems." The final chapter contains an assessment of alternative strategies for enhancing children's status and well-being.

Kids in Context is a comprehensive overview of the new and rapidly growing field of sociology of children and childhoods. It includes explication of theories and empirical evidence about children's social worlds, from their day-to-day experiences in their homes, neighborhoods and schools to the impact on their lives of political, economic, and social trends at the global level. Alternative perceptions of children and childhood and the implications of children's subordinate social status will be examined. In keeping with the authors' view of children as active participants in society rather than simply as passive recipients of adult care and control, each chapter contains data gathered directly from children, and examples of children's contributions to their families, communities and societies are noted. In a pair of chapters on family life, the authors examine the mutual effects of kids and parents on each other as well as the implications of changing family structures and modes of child rearing. Other chapters are devoted to the dynamics of children's group life and the creation and dissemination of children's culture, both locally and globally. Variations in childhoods resulting from inequalities of race and ethnicity, social class and gender are compared, with special attention to groups of children who have been marginalized or treated mainly as "social problems." The final chapter contains an assessment of alternative strategies for enhancing children's status and well-being.

Establishes the power of early care and education to change children's lives, particularly children in poverty.Barnett and Boocock present a multi-disciplinary assessment of the long-term outcomes of early care and education in the United States and abroad. Innovative new research, together with up-to-date, comprehensive reviews, provide lessons for the design of early childhood programs, policies, and research. Contributors from the fields of education, psychology, sociology, and economics address questions about the causal relationships through which early childhood programs produce their long-term effects, the characteristics of effective early childhood programs, how nations respond to the global social and economic trends that are changing the lives of children and their families everywhere, child care's effects on maternal labor force participation, the potential and perils of welfare reform, and the implications of national economic and political structures for early care and education policies.A unique feature of the book is its attention to the practical problems of conducting research to support public policy development, translating research results into public policy, and improving communication between researchers and policy makers. The research presented in this important volume clearly establishes that early care and education can permanently improve the lives of children in poverty, provides research-based recommendations for achieving that goal through public policy, and sets an agenda for future research on early care and education's long-term outcomes.