Having already contributed to the literature on the sociology of, primarily British, childhoods Allison James, together with Adrian L. James on this occasion, have brought together a collection of essays which extend this discussion into Europe.

In recent years, there has been a sea-change in how Western European children and childhood is seen by policy makers. There has been a significant paradigm shift: children are beginning to be seen as human beings, rather than human becomings (Uprichard, Reference Uprichard2008), with childhood seen not just as work in progress on the way to being an adult, but as a social and cultural context that is unique to children. The exploration of this issue involves complex discussions about citizenship, culture and what it means to be human. To a certain extent, this change is grounded in a growing global awareness of the political and social rights of children, which culminated in the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Today most countries, with the notable exception of the United States, have signed and ratified UNCRC and, as a consequence, many countries have amended national legislation in respect of children: Norway has gone as far as incorporating UNCRC into its Human Rights Act (p. 15). This present collection brings together academics from Ireland, Norway, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Cyprus and the UK to discuss their national social, political and welfare policies as they affect children's interests. In the words of the editors, ‘this is arguably a profoundly important indicator of the way in which different societies understand and view children and childhood’ (p. 1).

The collection underlines the fact that different Western European cultures address childhood in very different ways: for example in Scandinavia there is a recognition of children as being social actors in their own right, whereas in the UK childhood is increasingly seen as a period of ‘risk’ during which adult monitoring and protection are seen as being essential in order to provide a ‘good’ childhood for children. The discussion about what constitutes a ‘good’ or ‘proper’ childhood is central to many of the essays, as is the issue of what is the ‘best interests of the child’ – a formula which informs much family, welfare and juvenile justice legislation. The writers make the point that there is no universal yardstick by which a child's best interests can be measured. In effect, the manner in which different states construct childhood dictates how this issue is answered.

Another important aspect of this work is an appreciation that there is no single experience of childhood: the childhoods of the title refers not just to a comparison of childhood between different states, but also within states themselves. A good example of this is in Anne Kjǿrholt's discussion of the different experiences of childhood in Norway between a two-year-old refugee, Nadia, and a Norwegian-born girl, Mari. This case study highlights the difficulties in applying the UNCRC principles of ‘participation’, ‘protection’ and ‘provision’, in relation to marginalised groups such as asylum seekers unless children's rights are prioritised in all contexts, including immigration legislation. The idea that the state should foster children's rights rather than national identity is a concept that needs further exploration and is examined with regard to the Irish situation by Dympna Devine (Chapter 5). Her position is that the cultural politics of childhood in Ireland is at a point of transition, for example there is now an Ombudsman for Children and a Minister for Children (p. 98), but that this is not widespread and public debates centre on the idea of a ‘loss’ of childhood in modern Ireland. Underlying this discourse is a growing tension between the advocates of children's rights and parents who fear that their traditional role in relation to their children is being undermined. This tension is mirrored in Ferran Casas' discussion about children's use of new technology in Spain. The new competencies that children and young people are demonstrating as they embrace new technology is directly challenging to the old order. Casas' essay, which examined children's use of different audio-visual media, is one of the only discussions that highlighted gender in relation to childhood.

The lack of a gendered debate in relation to European childhoods is one of the few gaps in this collection. Given the subject matter, it is also surprising that children's views were not featured in any of the essays. Despite that, this is a rich and textured collection of essays which touches upon a range of social policy issues: what does it mean to be a citizen, and how does non-citizenship affect children's human rights? What is the legitimate role of the state in relation to children and families? How has UNCRC altered the social and political landscape of those states that have incorporated the Convention into domestic legislation? And, ultimately, what does it mean to be a human?

For anyone with an academic or professional interest in children's rights this collection would be an invaluable addition to their library and is an inspirational precedent for discussing childhoods in general. It is important to recognise that these discussions, whilst being physically and culturally located in Europe and the European context also have significance outside of that locale, especially for new societies such as New Zealand, which is dominated by a largely British cultural heritage. Children's rights in general and UNCRC in particular generate important social and political changes which need to be understood by as large a constituency as possible.