ABSTRACT
Policy and political discussion of governments’ role in child care has probably never been greater in western democracies, yet geographers have made little contribution to the literature on the issue. At the same time the major spurt of geographic literature on public services provision (reviewed, for example, by Pinch, 1985) was marked by its lack of inclusion of child care among the public services to which access was calculated. This chapter seeks to review some of the contemporary English-speaking, social science literature on the state’s intervention in child care, and also to isolate perspectives on the topic that feminist geographers could develop. Examples from a range of different countries will be provided to illustrate international diversities or uniformities in governments’ involvement in child care provision.
