Babies Engagements With Everyday Things

This thesis explores how babies (1-18 months old) engage with material things in their everyday lives. The aim is to contribute with theoretical and empirical insights into babies own practices around material things and how attending to these practices can lead to reflections on participation, material culture and everyday space. The empirical material is collected through video ethnographic fieldwork in the homes of seven babies and their families. The empirical material has been analysed through combining cultural analysis with the analytical approach ‘thinking with theory’. The thesis shows that sensoriality and movement is important for understanding babies own engagements with things and that these engagements are not limited to things given to, or intended for, them. Babies also shape the everyday spaces of the families through their movements of things in their homes. The analyses also show that focusing on sensoriality and movement in the meeting between babies and the researcher is a promising contribution to discussions concerning participatory research and ethnographic method. The thesis is theoretically situated within the field of child- and childhood studies. Avhandlingens syfte är att undersöka hur bebisar (1-18 månader) använder sig av materiella saker i deras vardagsliv. Syftet är att bidra med empirisk och teoretisk kunskap om bebisars egna praktiker samt hur ett fokus på bebisars egna intressen kan leda till reflektioner kring barns deltagande, materiell kultur och platsskapande i bebisars hem. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom videoetnografiskt fältarbete hemma hos sju bebisar och deras familjer. Materialet har analyserats med hjälp av en kombination av kulturanalys och genom att ’tänka med’ teori om rörelse. Avhandlingen visar att fokus på sensorialitet och rörelse är viktigt för att förstå vad bebisar gör med saker och att bebisars användande av saker inte är begränsat till leksaker eller andra saker avsedda för dom. Bebisar påverkar även hur hemmet är organiserat, till exempel, genom att flytta runt och sprida ut saker i hemmet. Analyserna pekar även på att ett fokus på sensorialitet och rörelse i mötet mellan bebisar och forskare är lovande för att undersöka frågor rörande etnografisk metod och deltagande. Avhandlingen är teoretiskt förankrad i barn – och barndomstudier.

This book analyses parental anxieties about their children’s healthcare issues in urban China, engaging with wider theoretical debates about modernity, risk and anxiety. It examines the broader social, cultural and historical contexts of parental anxiety by analysing a series of socio-economic changes and population policy changes in post-reform China that contextualise parental experiences. Drawing on Wilkinson’s (2001) conceptualisation linking individual’s risk consciousness to anxiety, this book analyses the situated risk experiences of parents’ and grandparents’, looking particularly into their engagement with various types of media. It studies the representations of health issues and health-related risks in a parenting magazine, popular newspapers, commercial advertising and new media, as well as parents’ and grandparents’ engagement with and response to these media representations. By investigating ‘a culture of anxiety’ among parents and grandparents in contemporary China, this book seeks to add to the scholarship of contemporary parenthood in a non- Western context.

Our Children and Future need more care and hope in this rapidly changing uncertain world, so families, educators and society must engage differently with children and with each other, for better results. Many parents and school personnel may rear and teach with outdated practices that may not prepare children for their future challenges and opportunities. This updated and renamed guide book is long-overdue to help older adolescents mature and adults upgrade and adjust their actions and skills. They will both learn lessons from their pasts for better decision making while making sense of today. This can also result in better engagement with children and each other for improved family well-being and academic achievement. Then more children can realize hope for more success in their futures. This is a practical must-read that will be used repeatedly from birth through high school graduation and beyond to impact individuals, families, schools, communities and our nation.

Infused with our authors’ personal experiences teaching, Literacy in Australia, 3rd Edition is delivered as a full colour printed textbook with an interactive eBook code included. This enables students to master concepts and succeed in assessment by taking the roadblocks out of self-study, with features designed to get the most out of learning such as animations, interactivities, concept check questions and videos. With a prioritised focus on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures featured throughout the text, pre-service teachers will be well-equipped with the knowledge of what kinds of activities they can include in and out of the classroom for an enriching learning experience for their students.

Discover a vital source of volunteers for your organization By the year 2020, there will be 65 million people aged 65 and over living in the United States—a new generation of active older adults expecting to use the expertise, experience, and life skills they’ve gained to make valuable contributions to society in their retirement years. Civic Engagement and the Baby Boomer Generation presents the latest research findings and evaluation studies that help promote a thorough understanding of the programs, policies, and civic opportunities available to people aged 50 and older. This unique book is an essential resource for nonprofit organizations seeking to meet their needs with a generation of volunteers eager to explore new options, work in new capacities, and continue lifelong learning. More than any previous generation, baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are defying stereotypes about aging while seeking new and meaningful lifestyles. Civic Engagement and the Baby Boomer Generation defines an agenda for future policy, research, and practice to help reverse the well-documented decline in civic engagement in the United States, providing older Americans with opportunities to have an impact in their local, national, and global communities. The book’s contributors focus attention on the value of civic engagement in creating vital social capital and social networks. Civic Engagement and the Baby Boomer Generation examines: current issues and trends in civic engagement results from senior corps. examinations expanding youth service concepts lifelong learning institutes the relationship between civic engagement and leadership issues in elder service and volunteerism outcomes of a national agenda setting meeting intergenerational relations and civic engagement Civic Engagement and the Baby Boomer Generation is an important source of information for anyone working with nonprofit, government, and corporate organizations concerned with public policy, community affairs, volunteerism, research, practice, and education.

This book is a detailed study of children’s everyday practices in a small, deprived neighbourhood of post-socialist Bratislava, called Kopčany. It provides a novel empirical insight on what it is like to be growing up after 25 years of post-socialist transformations and questions the formation of children’s agency and the multitude of resources it comes from. What happens if we accept children’s practices as cornerstones of communities? What is uncovered if we examine adults' co-presence with children in everyday community spaces? With a background in youth work, the author writes from the unique position of being able to develop in-depth insights into both children’s life-worlds, and practitioners’ priorities and needs.

Young Children Playing and Learning in a Digital Age explores the emergence of the digital age and young children’s experiences with digital technologies at home and in educational environments. Drawing on theory and research-based evidence, this book makes an important contribution to understanding the contemporary experiences of young children in the digital age. It argues that a cultural and critically informed perspective allows educators, policy-makers and parents to make sense of children’s digital experiences as they play and learn, enabling informed decision-making about future early years curriculum and practices at home and in early learning and care settings. An essential read for researchers, students, policy-makers and professionals working with children today, this book draws attention to the evolution of digital developments and the relationship between contemporary technologies, play and learning in the early years.

When Maggie begins life on her own, in her own perfect apartment, with her own job, and her very own boyfriend, she learns the hard way that the life one imagines one has is not necessarily the life one is living. Share with Maggie and her very sensible friend Kath the peace that comes from a bit of common sense and trusting in God’s plan. Open your heart to all the new people who come into their lives. Join Maggie, Liam, Mike, Cecilia, Matty, Emily, and even the Franklins as they search for love and happiness, sometimes for the wrong reasons and with the wrong people. Laugh and cry with them as they experience all the joy, sadness, and ordinary events that happen in their lives. And perhaps learn along with them that some things are better when they’re not quite so perfect!