Abstract

Due to the demand for flexible working hours and employees who are available around the clock, the time patterns of childcare and schooling have increasingly become a political issue. Comparing the development of different “time policies” of half-day and all-day provisions in a variety of Eastern and Western European countries since the end of World War II, this innovative volume brings together internationally known experts from the fields of comparative education, history, and the social and political sciences, and makes a significant contribution to this new interdisciplinary field of comparative study.

"This is a very strong collection of essays by some of the top scholars in the field of European social policy, including both historians and social scientists. The individual chapters are richly detailed, well written, and informative, documenting a wide range of thinking and practices about children, families, and states over more than two centuries.”  ·  Sonya Michel, University of Maryland

"[A] very useful collection. The editors have taken an inclusive approach to Europe: chapters cover not only the large countries such as France, Germany, or Britain but also many smaller nations like Switzerland, the Czech Republic, or Hungary. Each of the national case studies provides a concise and well-organized account of historical background and present-day contours of educational time policy.”  ·  Ann Taylor Allen, University of Louisville

Konrad H. Jarausch is Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Cristina Allemann-Ghionda is Professor of Comparative Education at the University of Cologne.

Karen Hagemann is James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.