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The field of early childhood education is increasingly dominated by a strongly positivistic and regulatory discourse, the story of quality and high returns, which has spread from its local origins in the favourable environment provided by a global regime of neoliberalism. But though dominant, this is not the only discourse in early childhood education, there are alternatives that are varied, vibrant and vocal; not silenced but readily heard by those who listen and forming a resistance movement. The article argues that this movement needs to confront a number of questions. Do its members want to influence and shape policy and practice? If so, what might a transformed and commensurate policy and practice look like? What are the possibilities that such transformation might be achieved, especially given the apparent unassailability of the current dominant discourse, and the force of the power relations that have enabled this discourse, local in origin and parochial in outlook, to aspire to global hegemony? And if such transformation were to occur, is it possible to avoid simply replacing one dominant discourse with another? Some partial and provisional answers are offered to these questions.

With the growth of parental employment, leave policy is at the centre of welfare state development and at the heart of countries' child and family policies. It is widely recognised as an essential element for attaining important demographic, social and economic goals and is the point where many different policy areas intersect: child well-being, family, gender equality, employment and labour markets, and demography. Leave policy, therefore, gives a unique insight into a country's values, interests and priorities. International comparisons of leave policy are widely available, but far less attention has been paid to understanding the factors that bring about these variations. The politics of parental leave policies makes good this omission. Looking at parental leave policy within a wider work/family context, it addresses how and why, and by whom, particular policies are created and subsequently developed in particular countries. Chapters covering 15 countries in Europe and beyond and the European Union bring together leading academic experts to provide a unique insight into the past, present and future state of this key policy area. The politics of parental leave policies is essential reading for students, teachers and researchers in social policy, child and family policy, welfare states, gender relations and equality, and employment and labour markets, providing an opportunity to study in depth the creation of social policy. It will also be of interest to policy makers in national governments and international organisations.

The early childhood services of Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy has gained worldwide interest and admiration. Drawing on the ‘Reggio approach’, and others, this book explores the ethical and political dimensions of early childhood services and argues the importance of these dimensions at a time when they are often reduced to technical and managerial projects, without informed consideration for what is best for the child. Extending and developing the ideas raised in Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Care and Education the successful team of authors make a wide range of complex material accessible to readers who may have little knowledge of the various important and relevant areas within philosophy, ethics, or politics, covering subjects such as: post-structural thinkers and their perspectives the history and practice of early childhood work in Reggio Emilia globalization, technological change, poverty, and environmental degradation ethical and political perspectives relevant to early childhood services from Foucault and Deleuze, to Beck, Bauman and Rose. This book presents essential ideas, theories and debates to an international audience. Those who would find this particularly useful are practitioners, trainers, students, researchers, policymakers and anyone with an interest in early childhood education. Peter Moss is Professor in Early Childhood Provision at the Institute of Education, University of London. Gunilla Dahlberg is Professor at Stockholm Institute of Education. She is the leading exponent of the application of post-structural theory to the field of early childhood. 'This book is bold and challenging; it deals with complex ideas and the authors are not afraid to engage with difficult, abstract and complex concepts and apply them directly to practice. By challenging many standard features of existing services the book generates a range of useful insights ... It provides for the practitioner, student or academic who is prepared to invest a little time in getting to grips with its central ideas a compelling vision of an unashamedly utopian model of service provision.' - Journal of Early Childhood Research 1. Opening Narrative 2. Technology as First Practice 3. What Ethics? 4. Preschools as a Loci of Ethical Practice 5. Towards a Pedagogy of Listening 6. Major and Minor Politics 7. The Preschool as a Site for Democratic Politics 8. In Search of Utopia

This paper presents modifications to the adoption of a Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) framework in Probabilistic Structural Fire Engineering. Potential Fire Severity Measures, which capture significant characteristics of fire scenarios, are investigated. A suitable Fire Severity Measure (FSM), which best relates fire hazard intensity with structural response, is identified by satisfying efficiency and sufficiency criteria as described by the PBEE framework. The study also implements a new analysis method called Fire Stripe Analysis (FSA) to obtain the relationship between FSM and the structural response. In order to obtain the annual rate of exceedance of damage and repair cost/time for an office building, an occurrence model and an attenuation model for office structure fires are generated for both Christchurch city and New Zealand. The process is demonstrated with the help of a case study performed for a steel–concrete composite beam. Structural response is recorded for the beam exposed to several fire profiles which are generated by varying fuel loads from 200 MJ/m2 to 1000 MJ/m2 and ventilation factors from 0.02 m1/2 to 0.08 m1/2. FSA and dispersion curves of structural response are plotted for every fire severity measure. Cumulative incident radiation is found to be the most efficient and sufficient FSM. The mean annual rate of exceedance of given levels of fire severity and structural response are evaluated for both New Zealand and Christchurch city. It is found that Christchurch city has a 15% less probability of exceedance of the given fire severity level in comparison to the whole of New Zealand. The extension of this work would facilitate designers/insurers to evaluate the probability of damage or failure of a structure due to a probable fire hazard.

Not only does this book offer a great deal of insight into evaluating early childhood services, it also provides a focal point for those interested in establishing goals, objectives and evaluation criteria for their own early childhood programmes′ - Early Years `Quality′ has become a priority issue for all concerned with early childhood care and education services. Starting from the premise that `quality′ is a relative and dynamic concept based on values and beliefs, Valuing Quality in Early Childhood Services examines how the definitions of quality are established and who is involved in their establishment. The book advocates that the process should involve a range of stakeholder group.

This article explores possible relationships between education and social pedagogy. It begins by examining in more detail the theory and practice of social pedagogy, and the profession of social pedagogue widely known in Continental Europe but much less so in the Anglophone world. It then explores some different meanings of education, before considering in more detail the concept of Bildung and its potential for interconnecting education and social pedagogy. It is argued that the relationship between social pedagogy and education depends on the meaning attached to education; and the article ends by considering some implications – for schools, other settings for children and young people, and for their workforces – of choosing a close relationship between education and social pedagogy.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the development of leave policies in Europe, both at a regional and national level, and to consider what future directions such policies might take to meet changing conditions and emerging needs. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on the work of an international network that the authors founded in 2004, which brings together experts on leave policy from over 40 countries, and in particular on an annual review of national leave policies conducted by network members. Findings The article presents developments in European legislation on leave policy stretching from 1883 to the present day, and outlines the extent of leave policies in European countries and the wide variations in the design of these policies. It suggests that future directions in leave policy need to address the relationship between this and other policy areas; the need for a life course perspective to leave policy, getting beyond parental leave; and that leave should turn away from being considered an employment benefit towards becoming a universal right to care. Originality/value The paper provides a concise overview of leave policy in the global region where leave policies began and are today most developed, at both a regional and national level. It is also intended to stimulate debate about the future directions that leave policy might take.

The paper argues the case for choosing a democratic culture for education in general and early childhood education in particular. It locates its discussion, and the case made for democratic culture, in a current context of converging existential crises and the ending of the neoliberal hegemony, making transformative change, though difficult, both urgent and possible. The concept of ‘democratic culture’ is elaborated and its importance for the production of meaning and for enabling a turn from technical to political thinking and practiceemphasised. Some possible consequences of choosing a democratic culture for early childhood education are considered, in terms of the political choices that may be made with respect to the purposes of education, pedagogy and the image of schools, teachers and children. The article ends by considering possible processes of transformative change for early childhood education, providing examples of local projects that have evolved towards a democratic culture. O artigo argumenta a importância da escolha de uma cultura democrática para a educação em geral e para a educação de infância em particular. Situa a sua discussão numa visão de cultura democrática no contexto actual de crises existenciais convergentes e de fim da hegemonia neoliberal, tornando a mudança transformadora, embora difícil, ao mesmo tempo urgente e possível. O conceito de “cultura democrática” é elaborado e é enfatizada a sua importância para a produção de significado para permitir uma mudança de práticas e pensamentos técnicos para práticas e pensamentos políticos. São consideradas algumas possíveis consequências da escolha de uma cultura democrática para a educação de infância, em termos das escolhas políticas que podem ser feitas no que diz respeito aos propósitos da educação, da pedagogia e da imagem das escolas, dos professores e das crianças. O artigo termina considerando possíveis processos de mudança transformadora para a educação de infância, fornecendo exemplos de projetos locais que evoluíram em direção a uma cultura democrática. El artículo argumenta la importancia de elegir una cultura democrática para la educación en general y para la educación de la primera infancia en particular. Situa su discusión dentro de una visión de la cultura democrática en el contexto actual de crisis existenciales convergentes y el fin de la hegemonía neoliberal, haciendo que el cambio transformador, aunque difícil, al mismo tiempo sea urgente y posible. Se elabora el concepto de “cultura democrática” y se enfatiza su importancia para la producción de significado para permitir un cambio de prácticas y pensamientos técnicos a prácticas y pensamientos políticos. Se consideran algunas posibles consecuencias de elegir una cultura democrática para la educación de la primera infancia, en términos de las decisiones políticas que se pueden tomar con respecto a los propósitos de la educación, la pedagogía y la imagen de las escuelas, los maestros y los niños. El artículo finaliza considerando posibles procesos de cambio transformador para la educación de la primera infancia, brindando ejemplos de proyectos locales que han evolucionado hacia una cultura democrática.

At a time of converging and existential crises, the paper argues for, and examines the meaning of, a democratic culture and politics as first practice as necessary conditions for the transformative change needed for survival and flourishing. While acknowledging that such change needs to be comprehensive, including all education, the paper considers in particular the meaning of democratic culture and politics as first practice for early childhood education, and some of the processes that might bring them about.