This textbook for advanced and post graduate students sets out the contexts of children's and young peoples lives and encourages students to explore their complexities and contexts. This new edition has been substantially updated to discuss and analyse new topics and issues that have emerged over the last ten years, including: developments in the way that children and young peoples lives have been theorised and understood; their engagement in all aspects of contemporary cultures including the spiritual as well as the digital; the impact of recent political, economic and social change. Drawing on insights from psychology, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, geography and education, each chapter challenges students assumptions and examines crucial issues in the field, such as participation, race, rights, law, transnational childhoods and sexuality. These different perspectives, drawing on different bodies of work, form a holistic picture of the multi-faceted lives of children and young people today.