Children of the welfare state: civilising practices in schools, childcare and families

Children of the Welfare State uses the case of Denmark—employed as emblematic of the European state—to consider the ways in which children are “civilized” within child-focused institutions, such as schools, daycare, and the family unit, under the auspices of the welfare state. Through deep ethnographic studies, the authors build a clear account of children’s experiences at a variety of ages, different genders, and from differing ethnic and social backgrounds. Ultimately they show that even though Danish welfare institutions are marked by a strong egalitarian ideal, they nonetheless tend to reproduce dominant norms of social class and distinctions of ethnicity and religion.