Abstract
Childhood is in the midst of a dynamic and comprehensive transformation with a view to its subsumption under a generational order. It is necessary to investigate first the normative premises influencing the perception of inequalities. This goal is approached from three angles: childhood and related research paradigms, international rights with emphasis on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and theories of social justice. While for the first part the prevailing question is what childhood and generational order should be like, for the central part the question is what childhood is like. For answering this question a most comprehensive and representative source, the Innocenti Report Card Series on Children’s Well-Being in Rich Countries published by Unicef in the first decade of this century, is used for providing research findings on childhood, child well-being, and inequalities in rich countries as well as information on methodological developments. A rather surprising outcome of the exercise is the absence of the generational perspective in the Innocenti Report Card series. As it is unthinkable to write on the situation of women without engaging in gender analysis, it is essential for any report on child well-being to address the generational or child-adult perspective. However, this perspective, though essential, is not at all sufficient in studying childhood inequalities. This is underlined by addressing the situation of Roma children. There may be worse situations around the world, but creating an environment for full development of the potential of Roma children remains one of the major challenges for Europe.
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Wintersberger, H. (2014). Childhood and Inequalities: Generational Distributive Justice and Disparities. In: Ben-Arieh, A., Casas, F., Frønes, I., Korbin, J. (eds) Handbook of Child Well-Being. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9063-8_62
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