Childhood Matters provides the reader with unique material on the living conditions of children in industrial society, and it presents a number of new theories and interpretations regarding the characteristics of childhood in modern society: in relation to family, economy, politics, time and space, intergenerational relations and demographic developments. The title Childhood Matters is pertinent in more than one sense. First of all, the book takes children seriously in their own right, in acknowledging their constructiveness as actors, not only for themselves and their own lives but also for society as a whole. Secondly, it challenges the idea of children whose target should be to become "integrated into society". School, day care and other structures constitute children's own life arenas, and it is forcefully argued that children's time and children's activities are their own, despite efforts by adult society to "colonize" them for its own purposes and interests.