Children of the Welfare State: Civilising Practices in Schools, Childcare and Families

Children of the Welfare State uses the case of Denmark--employed as emblematic of the European state--to consider the ways in which children are "civilized" within child-focused institutions, such as schools, daycare, and the family unit, under the auspices of the welfare state. Through deep ethnographic studies, the authors build a clear account of children's experiences at a variety of ages, different genders, and from differing ethnic and social backgrounds. Ultimately they show that even though Danish welfare institutions are marked by a strong egalitarian ideal, they nonetheless tend to reproduce dominant norms of social class and distinctions of ethnicity and religion.