Bücher der Reihe Sociological Studies of Children and Youth

In this volume, childhood is conceived as a structural feature of society and comparable across time and cultures. Such perspectives have been relatively under-represented in the "New Sociology of Childhood," which has tended both to stress children's agency and to favour ethnographic methods of inquiry.

Internationally, linguistic diversity is at its highest to date. With increasing numbers of children learning additional languages, it is important to understand the nature of the social relationships that children are experiencing. This volume features the rich, varied and complex aspects of children's friendships in multilingual settings.

Theorists in the UK have offered a new perspective through which to understand the interrelationship of the individual within the structure of the family. This volume's desire is to re-apply such thinking in the context of children's lives in the family.