ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the children and development, as distinct from the development of children. It deals mainly with the nature and location of the public and especially the international debate on children. The book presents questions rather than provide answers in order to stimulate thinking which will favour better practices. The phrase ‘theoretical, ethical and political arguments’ is used in a commonsensical and approximative way. Science and ethics both consist of theory and practice. These are dialectically related in the sense that theory has no meaning without practice and practice has no meaning without theory. The book proposes political and practical lessons which may be learned from the review of the nature and the location of the debate about children.
