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. In social research, cash-for-care is often described as a reactionary benefit that operates against the women's interests. Economists, in turn, ask why the state should pay for reducing female employment and for care that is given anyway. Nevertheless,...

This is a first-class repository of new knowledge on how media and family routines intertwine in daily interactions. The multi-method approach reveals how varying forms of media affect the interaction between children and their parents. Avoiding criticism of these interactions, the contributors instead offer an impartial view of the natural occurrences in media-related family life.

This timely book reveals how policies of childcare and early childhood education influence children's circumstances and the daily lives of families with children. Examining how these policies are approached, it focuses particularly on the issues and pitfalls related to equal access. Chapters explore early childhood education and care policies in different social and geographical contexts, highlighting the different ways in which stakeholders - including parents, administrators and policy makers - approach issues of equality. The book further analyses what is meant by, and expected of,...