Children and the Good Life New Challenges for Research on Children

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.

Introduction - Sabine Andresen, Isabell Diehm, Uwe Sander, and Holger Ziegler.- Part I Children and the Good Life: Theoretical Challenges - Susann Fegter, Claudia Machtold and Martins Richter.- Modern Children and Their Well-Being: Dismantling an Ideal - Tanja Betz.- Children, the Feminist Ethic of Care and Childhood Studies: Is This theWay to the Good Life? - Tom Cockburn.- Childhood Welfare and the Rights of Children - Lourdes Gaitán Muñoz.- Children and Their Needs - Sabine Andresen and Stefanie Albus.- Part II The Capability Approach and Research on Children - Zoe Clark and Franziska Eisenhuth.- The Capability Approach and Research on Children: Capability Approach and Children’s Issues - Mario Biggeri, Jérôme Ballet, and Flavio Comim.- Subjective Well-Being and Capabilities: Views on theWell-Being of Young Persons - Holger Ziegler.- Language Education—For the “Good Life”? - Isabell Diehm and Veronika Magyar-Haas.- Part III Children’s Perspectives: Methodological Critiques and Empirical Studies - Christine Hunner-Kreisel and Melanie Kuhn.- Biographical Research in Childhood Studies: Exploring Children’s Voices from a Pedagogical Perspective - Gonzalo Jover and Bianca Thoilliez.- Researching Identities, Difference, Subjectivities and Social Relations in Childhood Within Multi-ethnic Infant and Primary School Settings - Cecile Wright.- Childhood Studies in Turkey - Akile Gürsoy.- Part IV Structural Conditions and Children in Different National Contexts - Tim Kohler and Uwe Sander.- Child Poverty—Social and Economic Policy for Children - Antje Richter-Kornweitz.- Well-Being of Children in Turkey - Didem Gürses.- Roma Children and Social Exclusion in Lithuania: Sociological Approach to Human Development - Tadas Leoncikas and Vida Beresneviciute

Andresen: Theory and History of Education, Childhood and Children Studies, Poverty, Family Research, Capability Research, Children’s Rights and Needs Diehm: Education and Migration, Children and Childhood, Early Childhood Education, Education and Gender Sander: Research on Youth Culture and Growing up, Media Research, Qualitative Social Research Ziegler: Capability Approach, Education and Welfare, Social Work, Children and Adolescence