<DIV><B><DIV><B><P>The purpose of this book is to promote a thoughtful engagement with key issues and theories that inform our understanding of childhood. Readers will enjoy, and be provoked by, a sophisticated analysis of the role and function of childhood in twenty-first century Britain, which can be used as a springboard for further enquiry and exploration.</P><B><P>Two intertwined themes permeate the text:<B> <B> - Children's sense of self and adults' temporal and cultural fabrications of childhood, and the articulation of these with policy and provision for young children. </P><B><P> - Young children and representation: how they are represented, the sense they make of such representations and their own representational activity. </P><B><P>Whose Childhood Is It? intends to turn readers away from our collective tendency to simplify the experiences of young children and replace this with a fuller, more complex, and more realistic understanding of the social dynamic that constitutes childhood today. </P><B><P>This book takes a user-friendly approach, with key questions and reflection boxes throughout as well as chapter summaries and suggested further reading. It will provide a rich resource for students of Early Childhood Studies, and for Early Years professionals and those training to be Early Years practitioners. </P></DIV></DIV>