The well-being of children. Theory, Practice and Policy -
MANCEPT Workshops in Political Theory

Date: September 4-6, 2013
Deadline for applications: May 15, 2013

The last years have seen an increasing interest in the topic of well-being across different disciplines. Questions of measurement and such regarding the normative value of well-being for theories of justice have been widely discussed. Furthermore, it has been acknowledged that these theoretical considerations interlink with questions of policy design andpolitical practice. There seems to be a shift that well-being might become one of the main indicators to measure the success of policies on all different levels, from the local to the national up to the international, and in many different policy areas.

Against this general background, we want to explore questions related to the theory, practice and policy of the well-being of children. Children are special in many aspects: it is a widely shared understanding that children are not able to fully understand their situation, that they are limited in their ability to make reasonable decisions about themselves and their actions, that they do not always act in their best interests, that they need the help and guidance of adults or that theyneed special protection from various harms and from making wrong choices. It is further well studied that the well-being during childhood has a significant influence on the whole future life course and adulthood. These factors make the well-being of children a topic of importance but also one that is confronted with many conceptual, normative and methodological difficulties that need to be addressed from different disciplines.

Conveners:
Gottfried Schweiger: gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at
Gunter Graf: ggraf@ifz-salzburg.at