Children and the Good Life: New Challenges for Research on Children (Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research Book 4)

Today, the challenge for Research on Children is the issue of the "good life". Discourses and the production of knowledge on the "good life" require a theoretical frame. This frame can be provided by various perspectives: the feminist ethic of care, the Human and Children's Rights Convention, the idea of welfare, or the Capability Approach. The aim of this book is to answer the question of how we can define and measure a "good life" for children growing up in the modern world. The book discusses the cogency of universalistic theories and explores the potential contribution of research on children and the possible integration of children into the research process and debates on the "good life". The articles collected in this book reflect the state of the art in research and discussions on this topic. Written by researchers from different countries and with expertise in various disciplines, the articles present theoretical and methodological analyses as well as empirical reports. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Front Matter....Pages 7-12 Introduction....Pages 1-6 Modern Children and Their Well-Being: Dismantling an Ideal....Pages 13-28 Children, the Feminist Ethic of Care and Childhood Studies: Is This the Way to the Good Life?....Pages 29-39 Childhood Welfare and the Rights of Children....Pages 41-51 Children and Their Needs....Pages 53-68 Front Matter....Pages 69-73 The Capability Approach and Research on Children: Capability Approach and Children’s Issues....Pages 75-89 Subjective Well-Being and Capabilities: Views on the Well-Being of Young Persons....Pages 91-101 Language Education—For the “Good Life”?....Pages 103-114 Front Matter....Pages 115-118 Biographical Research in Childhood Studies: Exploring Children’s Voices from a Pedagogical Perspective....Pages 119-129 Researching Identities, Difference, Subjectivities and Social Relations in Childhood Within Multi-ethnic Infant and Primary School Settings....Pages 131-139 Childhood Studies in Turkey....Pages 141-157 Front Matter....Pages 159-162 Child Poverty—Social and Economic Policy for Children....Pages 163-175 Well-Being of Children in Turkey....Pages 177-187 Roma Children and Social Exclusion in Lithuania: Sociological Approach to Human Development....Pages 189-201 Back Matter....Pages 203-205 In April 2009, an inspiring international conference was held at Bielefeld on the topic "Children and the Good Life: New Challenges for Research on Children." The focus was on how we can define and measure a "good life" for children growing up in the modern world. This tied in with discussions on how convincing universalistic theories are, what research on children can contribute, and how children themselves can be integrated into the research process and debates on the "good life." Discourses and the production of knowledge on the "good life" or "well-being" require a guiding idea or a theoretical frame. This frame can come from the feminist ethic of care or from the Human and Children's Rights Convention, from the idea of welfare, or from the Capability Approach.