Artikler om hvordan børn lærer og udvikler sig ved at tage del i aktiviteter i sociale fællesskaber som familien, blandt jævnaldrende, i skoleklassen og i daginstitutionen. Der fokuseres på børnenes perspektiv. Undersøgelserne er inspireret af Vygotskijs udviklingsteori samt af barndomssociologi.Indhold: Introduction / Mariane Hedegaard, Karin Aronsson, Charlotte Højholt and Oddbjørg Skjær Ulvik. I: Development, change, and children's perspcetives on social life: Liv Mette Gulbrandsen: Being a child, coming of age : exploring processes of growing up ; Ruth E. Toverud: "Being oneself" and "being of use" : on children's appropriation of values ; Pernille Hviid: "Remaining the same" and children's experience of development ; II: Family life practices as an arena for negotiations and formal learning: Mariane Hedegaard: Children's creative modeling of conflict resolutions in everyday life as central in their learning and development in families ; Karin Aronsson: Family life activities and everyday time politics ; Lucas Gottzén: Money talks: children's consumption and becoming in the family ; Oddbjørg Skjær Ulvik: Foster parenting as cultural practices: foster parents' developmental goals and strategies for their foster children ; Dorte Kousholt: Family problems: exploring dilemmas and complexities of organizing everyday family life ; III: Schools as social arenas: Maja Røn Larsen: A paradox of inclusionb : administrative procedures and children's perspectives on difficulties in school ; Louise Bøttcher: Using the child perspective to support children with severe impairments in becoming active subjects ; Ditte Winther-Lindqvist: Social identities in transition : contrasting strategies of two boys when changing school ; Charlotte Højholt: Communities of children and learning in school: children's perspectives