Katja Repo

Cash-for-Childcare

This insightful book examines the meaning of, and impacts on, cash-for-care systems for mothers of small children. The contributors present a comprehensive overview of the major political and economic contradictions, theoretical debates concerning cash-for-care, and explore the possibility of implementing it into the social policy system.

Unravelling conceptualizations of (in)equality in early childhood education and care system

ABSTRACT Early childhood education’s role in increasing equality in society has been highlighted by international organizations. However, it is unclear what is meant by the concept of equality in different situations, as the meaning fluctuates and reflects the cultural political contexts in which it is embedded. In this paper, we analyse the equality discourses of local early childhood education and care (ECEC) policymakers in Finland, drawing on different conceptualizations of equality and social justice. In doing so, we show that the way in which equality is conceptualized differs – along with the suggested remedies – depending on whether the subjects of equality are adults, children at the border of an institutional setting, or children within the ECEC institution.

Introduction: media and family interaction

This book is a repository of new knowledge on how media and family activities intertwine with each other in daily family interaction and child socialization. In addition, it outlines the challenges and opportunities new media bring to family life and children’s well-being. It addresses the question of how the digitalization of society and the changes in families’ media environment influence family practices, such as family time, intergenerational interaction, and the participation of children and their time use. The book discusses very timely and largely unexplored phenomena that are internationally identifiable. As a result of globalization, the digitalization of the living environments of children – such as the home – has become an increasingly international and universal phenomenon. The digital revolution has also complicated family life, and family interaction worldwide is affected by the presence of various media devices. However, the implications and consequences of this transformation of family interaction are still largely unknown. The research detailed in this volume shows how delicately media affect interaction between children and parents, and how profoundly they challenge everyday parenting. This kind of information is urgently needed, since the patterns of how media are encountered in the context of the family are still unstable and controversial. The book reveals the complexity and diversity of media-related family interaction by utilizing the unique data of video recordings of the family life of 26 Finnish families with a fiveor a 12-year-old child. Video cameras were placed in their homes for one weekday to document the interaction around the kitchen table and in front of the child’s main television and computer. Using the video data, we have been able to analyse what really happens in family homes instead of what parents think happened, or wished had happened. The analyses in the book are based on the Finnish research project