Ivar Frønes

Handbook of child well-being: Theories, methods and policies in global perspective, Vols. 1-5

HIV and AIDS remains a significant public health problem. Globally, an estimated 34 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2011 (UNAIDS 2012). Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains the most severely affected region, accounting for 69 % of the people living with HIV worldwide, with nearly 1 in every 20 adults (4.9 %) infected (UNAIDS 2012). HIV incidence also remains unacceptably high: an estimated 2.5 million people (adults and children) acquired HIV infection in 2011 (UNAIDS 2012). Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 71 % of the adults and children newly infected in 2011 (UNAIDS 2012). Further, an estimated 1.7 million people died from AIDS-related causes worldwide in 2011, with SSA accounting for 70 % of all the people dying from AIDS (UNAIDS 2012). Children are disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS. An estimated 3.4 million children were living with HIV at the end of 2011, 91 % of them in sub-Saharan Africa (WHO/UNAIDS/UNICEF 2011). In 2010, an estimated 250,000 children died from AIDS-related causes. In addition, an estimated 14.9 million children in SSA have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Many more children live with HIV-infected parents or primary caregivers. These children are also vulnerable and greatly affected by HIV and AIDS (UNICEF 2007; Atwani-Akwaraa et al. 2010; Daniel 2011).markdownabstractIntro The World Database of Happiness (Veenhoven 2012) is findings archive, that is, a collection of observations that result from scientific empirical research. The database focuses on research findings on happiness in the sense of subjective enjoyment of life. Its goal is to facilitate accumulation of knowledge on this subject. The database consists of several collections. It builds on a collection of all scientific publications about happiness, called the ‘Bibliography of Happiness’ (Veenhoven 2012a). To date this collection includes some 7000 books and articles, of which half report an empirical investigation that used an acceptable measure of happiness, listed in the collection ‘Measures of Happiness’ (Veenhoven 2012b). The findings yielded by some 3500 studies that past this test for adequate measurement of happiness are described on separate ‘finding pages’, using a standard format and a standard terminology. Two kinds of findings are discerned: distributional findings on how happy people are at a particular time and place and correlational findings about the things that go together with more of less happiness in these populations.

Taxonomy for child well-being indicators: A framework for the analysis of the well-being of children

Recent years have brought a dramatic rise in the number of efforts to measure and monitor the status of children. Yet, despite numerous efforts and reports with ‘Child indicators’ in the title, the field of social child indication is fragmented and lacking a unifying taxonomy. The more ambitious the analysis and the more elaborate the statistics, the stronger the need for a common language used by all. This article tries to suggest such a taxonomy.

Childhood: Leisure, Culture and Peers

A child immersed in play or games is not only a child preoccupied with leisure activities, but the cultural image of childhood. The European working and agrarian classes were still at work when the bourgeoisie conceived of childhood as a period of play, peers and leisure. Childhood was also understood as a segregated strange world, a state of mind. The latter was vividly illustrated by Virginia Woolf’s comments about Lewis Carroll and his vision in Alice in Wonderland: ‘he could return to that world; he could re-create it, so that we too become children again’ (Woolf, 1948, 83).

Past, present and futures of childhood studies: A conversation with former editors of Childhood:

DAN COOK: Thank you for being able to participate in this Special Anniversary Conversation of Childhood. As former Editors of Childhood, you have a rather unique perspective on the journal and on the field of childhood studies generally that we can explore. To start things off, can you describe your sense of the ‘state of the field’ when you first assumed your role as Editor? Did you bring a driving concern that you sought to have the journal address, or a particular problem or area of study you thought required the attention that was being overlooked at the time? IVAR FRØNES (Editor, 1993–1999): Being the first editor, and the sole editor for the first year of Childhood, my experience is a bit different from the later editors. The journal has its roots in the emerging field of childhood research in the late 1980s; more precisely, it grew out of a dialogue between researchers agreeing on the need for an interdisciplinary journal on childhood studies. Many experienced a lack of interests in childhood research from the disciplines of social sciences and their journals, as well as a narrow understanding of children and their development. The journal would – we hoped – provide greater intellectual coherence to the field, and engage authors in wider public and academic conversation. In a meeting before the launching of the journal, the first editorial board emphasised that the journal should be global, both in the variety of cultural perspectives as well as in factual publication, not ‘international’ in the sense culturally and numerically dominated by the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as being open to a variety of research methods and perspectives. Childhood was the result of discourses among groups of researchers, with different perspectives, theories and backgrounds, moving into a new field and what we experienced as new frontiers. The idea was to challenge the fragmentation of disciplines as well as of professional practices, through a journal that could provide an interdisciplinary and holistic perspective and, not at least, include the perspectives of children. 742554 CHD0010.1177/0907568217742554ChildhoodCook et al. research-article2017

The Knowledge Society

This section of the book addresses socialization in the knowledge-based societies, focussing on how this societal formation structures the life phases of childhood. In the educational knowledge society the processes of socialization are increasingly understood as the accumulation of social and cultural capital, related to the functions of educational development.

The Knowledge Society and Life Phase Dynamics

The process of socialization is structured by the life course of childhood; the knowledge society transforms the life phases of childhood as well as their interplay. This chapter analyses the changes in the phases of childhood, from toddler to the young adult, as well as changes in the family and peer group. The emphasis on the first years of life is related to the need for a good start in the educational society.

Socialization in Psychological Perspectives

The chapter presents an understanding of socialization in the dominant psychoanalytic theories, ranging from Freud to Lacan, and in cognitive psychology, rooted in Piaget and Kohlberg, as well as relating socialization to learning theory and to the framework of Vygodsky. Social cognitive development represents an axis in psychological theorising, with the family and peers the dominant agents of socialization.

Socialization in Sociological Perspectives

The chapter outlines the basic concepts and theories of socialization in sociology, and relates them to different arenas and agents of socialization, ranging from family and peers to modern media. The chapter examines socialization in light of social structures, social class and cultural patterns, emphasizing the strength of the culture of the taken-for-granted, as well as the child as an active subject constructing meaning in a variety of contexts. Socialization is related to development and learning as well as to children’s well-being.

Socialization and Life Course Analyses

The chapter examines children’s life history, in light of demographics and the basic concepts of the life course approach, relating identity and social development to the phases of childhood. Children move through childhood as cohorts; their experiences as young generations vary with societal formation and historical period. Socialization is related to life phases and generational exchange, illustrating that childhood, identity formation and well-being have to be understood in relation to life phases and generations.

Socialization as Biological-Social Interaction

Socialization is a social process with strong biological components that interact with social and cultural frameworks and factors. The chapter illustrates the interplay of social and genetic factors, referring to studies that underline that babies are biologically designed for moving into communities of signs, as well as to meta-perspectives on the relationship between evolution and culture.