Abstract
This special issue contains a set of papers prepared for a conference on “Comparative Child and Family Policy” held in honor of Sheila B. Kamerman on the occasion of her retirement from Columbia University School of Social Work. The papers collected in this issue provide a contemporary perspective on comparative child and family policy, highlighting new developments and current challenges for research and policy. In this Introduction, we briefly summarize the papers and then conclude with a discussion of some implications for future research and policy.
Articles in this issue of the Children and Youth Services Review include:
- Child care and school performance in Denmark and the United States
- A comparative study of child welfare systems: Abstract orientations and concrete results
- How do we measure and monitor the “state of our children”? Revisiting the topic in honor of Sheila B. Kamerman
- Parental leaves and early childhood education and care: From mapping the terrain to exploring the environment
- Recent reforms in childcare and family policies in France and Germany: What was at stake?
- Social protection and children in developing countries
- The case for family benefits
- Setting the scene: The mix of family policy objectives and packages across the OECD
- The Nordic child care regime — History, development and challenges
- From comparative to global social policy: Lessons for development practitioners from UNICEF's Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities
- Child poverty in cross-national perspective: Lessons from the Luxembourg Income Study