In this special issue, we explore child rights governance as the intersection between the study of governance and the study of children, childhood, and children’s rights. Our introduction puts forward a set of theoretical points of departure for the study of child rights governance, engaging with scholarship on human rights, international relations, history, and governance. It links the individual contributions to this special issue with four central dimensions of child rights governance, namely: temporality, spatiality, subjectivity, and normativity.

Lag (2012:663) om ersättning på grund av övergrepp eller försummelser i samhällsvården av barn och unga i vissa fall tillkom för att ge ekonomisk ersättning till den som i samband med vården utsatts för övergrepp eller försummelser av allvarlig art när personen varit omhändertagen för samhällsvård, under tidsperioden den 1 januari 1920 till och med den 31 december 1980. En särskild nämnd, Ersättningsnämnden, inrättades för att under åren 2013–2016 pröva om en sökande var berättigad till schablonbeloppet om 250 000 kr. Den svenska processen har väckt uppmärksamhet bl.a. p.g.a. den stora andelen avslag och de komplexa kriterierna för ersättning. I artikeln presenteras resultaten från ett tvärvetenskapligt historiskt-rättsvetenskapligt forskningsprojekt: Gränserför upprättelse: välfärdsstatens historiska ansvar i upprättelseprocesser riktade till offer för vanvård i fosterhem och barnhem. I fokus är glappet mellan den politiska avsikten, att skapa ett rättssäkert system för en generös ersättning, och utfallet av den rättsliga processen, som innebar att majoriteten av de sökande nekades ersättning. Förklaringen, menar författarna, står åtminstone delvisatt finna i en sammanblandning av olika processformer och rättsprinciper. Detta kan relateras till en ojämn ansvarsfördelning mellan lagfarna ledamötermed expertis från allmän domstol respektive allmän förvaltningsdomstol.Framställningen tar avstamp i socialrättsligt reglerade förhållanden och spänner sedan över skadeståndsrätt, förvaltningsrätt, processrätt, barnrätt och mänskligarättigheter.

Med det tidiga 1900-talets rösträttsreformer blev ålder en central måttstock på politiskt medborgarskap. I början av 1900-talet höjdes rösträtts och valbarhetsåldrarna för att sedan steg för steg sänkas till 18 år 1974. Förändringarna speglade en förändrad syn dels på ungdomars mognad och ansvar, dels på ungdomens bidrag till samhället.

The Swedish Redress Scheme intended for victims of historical child abuse inout-of-home care compensated only 46 % of claimants who sought economic compensation for past harms. This article explores the reasons behind this comparatively low validation rate by investigating a) how the eligibilitycriteria of the Redress Act were evaluated by the Redress Board, and b) the justifications and underlying values used when applications were rejected with reference to that the reported abuse was not deemed to be sufficiently severe according to past standards. Victim capital, which determines how vulnerable or credible a victim is perceived to be by others, as well as competence and narration are essential aspects for this type of legal proceeding. The article demonstrates that the claimants had to traverse a complicated web of criteriato be awarded compensation. The outcomes for claimants were affected by how the past was conceptualised in this legal setting, what competences the victims themselves possessed, what competence and resources the administrative system offered, and to the extent to which the decision-making process fragmented victims’ narratives.

Parent education surfaced as a political question in Sweden in the 1960s and support for parents has since remained on the political agenda. Despite different views on the ideal relationship between the welfare state, the family and children, support for parents has been advocated by parties from all over the political spectrum. By tracing the political debate, this article addresses the question of how the notion of support for parents was adapted to different political ideas, ideologies and ways of defining the relationship between state, family and children from the 1960s until the 2000s in Sweden. We analyse the arguments that different political parties offered and the varying meanings attributed to terms like ‘parent education’ (föräldrautbildning) and ‘parenting support’ (föräldrastöd) during three different phases in the transformation of the Swedish welfare state: the final period of its expansion in the 1960s and 1970s; the economic crisis and retrenchments of welfare services in the 1990s; and the era of individual responsibility in the 2000s. Support for parents has been actualised as a solution to different social and political problems and the notions of parent education and parenting support have proven the capacity to accommodate different political ideas, ideologies and visions.

This chapter analyzes the story and the historic roots of the parallel school system in Sweden in the early nineteenth century. It illustrates how educational changes and the conflicts over the organization of schools also shaped the changing understanding of the meaning of childhood. The chapter explores how the poor-relief authorities claimed access to the schools to solve their problems with the poor at the same time as educational reforms aimed to improve education for the middle classes. The education system outlined in the poor-relief plan for Stockholm meant not just economic sacrifices for the prosperous classes who financed it; it was also an attempt to limit the voluntary nature of the school and to create a compulsory institution. The school system and the poor-relief institutions were to be supported by rules about the policing of the poor relief.

Barn, barndom och samhälle. Svensk utbildningshistoria handlar om skolor och alla de personer som funnits i dem: elever, studenter och lärare i första hand, men även andra, som skolpolitiker och debattörer. Boken handlar också om samhällsförändringen i stort från det sena 1500-talet fram till i dag. Skolans historia har formats av många parallella förändringsprocesser: klassamhällets och demokratins utveckling, förändrade föreställningar om samhällets behov av kvalifikationer och krav på medborgarna, nya vetenskapliga rön om barn och uppväxtförhållanden samt läraryrkets förändring. Därmed är detta också en bok om barn och barndomens historia, om synen på barns kulturella och sociala plats samt om föreställningar om normalitet och avvikelse.

Skolans och utbildningsväsendets historia handlar dessutom om hur en obligatorisk skola ska se ut för att den ska passa alla barn men samtidigt skapa förutsättningar att ta till vara på varje barns unika möjligheter. Varför är utbildning i skolor både en plikt och en möjlighet? Hur påverkar och påverkas skolan av välfärdssystemets utveckling? Det är den historien den här boken beskriver.

"The Swedish toy industry has long produced vast quantities of colorful, quality wooden items that reflect Scandinavian design and craft traditions. This superbly illustrated book, including specially commissioned photography, looks at over 200 years of Swedish toys, from historic dollhouses to the latest designs for children. Featuring rattles, full-size rocking horses, dollhouses, and building blocks to skis, sleds, and tabletop games with intricate moving parts, Swedish Wooden Toys also addresses images of Swedish childhood, the role of the beloved red Dala horse in the creation of national identity, the vibrant tradition of educational toys, and the challenges of maintaining craft manufacturing in an era of global mass-production. " 

   The well-being of children represents a challenge not yet fully confronted and The Handbook of Child Well-being supplies its readers with a thorough overview of the complexities and implications regarding the scientific and practical pursuit of children's well-being. The handbook addresses the concept of well-being through an in-depth analysis of the perspectives and vocabularies of various disciplines such as, philosophy, theology, psychology and sociology. It covers important issues in child well-being and the problems of the general politics of well-being as well as the implementation of interventional programs and measures. In addition the handbook deals with the methods of measuring well-being for a scientifically grounded understanding and also for policy-making. The interdisciplinary set up of the handbook makes it a unique work that offers readers from a vast scope of child-related disciplines and professions a profound overview of the complexities and implications of the scientific and practical pursuit of childrens well-being

In this article, changing treatment ideologies and policies in child psychiatric outpatient services in Sweden from 1945 to 1985 are examined. The aim is to discuss the role played by psychoanalytic and psychodynamic thinking in this process of change. When mental health services for children were introduced in the mid-1940s, psychoanalytic thinking was intertwined with the social democratic vision of the Swedish welfare state in which children symbolized the future. In practice, however, treatment ideology was initially less influenced by psychoanalytic thinking. From the early 1960s, child psychiatric services expanded and the number of units increased. By then, the political vision had disappeared, but a treatment ideology began to evolve based on psychodynamic theories, which became dominant in the 1970s.