Research Question

PolChi offers the unrivalled opportunity to study policies for families in countries which represent different “worlds of family policy”. The central research question is: do logics and practices of child-centred policies converge or diverge in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, given on the one hand their historically different family and institutional settings and on the other hand their increasing tendency to import programmes and to follow the international consensus? In a nutshell, the project’s guiding interest is in comparing variations in ideas about children’s proper status in society (“private” versus “public” children), “good” parenting, the appropriate role of experts, and different forms and timing of policy change.


Project | Detailed Description | Funding | Research Question | Objectives | Methods