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AbstractIn this paper, social workers' ideas of kinship care and non‐kinship care as foster placement alternatives for vulnerable children are analysed and discussed. The study is based on group interviews with Swedish social workers, using a discourse analytic approach. The interviews took two vignettes of children who needed an immediate and long‐term placement because one of the parents had killed the other parent, as their point of departure. Domestic violence is a common social problem across countries, and controversies about placement alternatives become even more apparent when discussing lethal violence. The analysis revealed three main discourses: 'emotional kinship care', 'neutral non‐kinship care' and 'a real family'. The emotional kinship care discourse also revealed two competing sub‐discourses: 'emotions as glue that binds' and 'emotions as obscuring a child perspective', displaying a struggle concerning the advantages and risks that social workers connected to kinship care. In this paper, the results and their implications for vulnerable children are discussed.

Abstract
The aim of this article was to develop the understanding of discretion in compulsory care for youth and the influence of emotional aspects in developing a collective discretionary practice. The empirical material consists of group interviews with staff at these institutions. The theoretical concepts of emotional labour and emotional energy are used to understand discretion and face-to-face interaction in this specific setting. The results show how the staff navigate between rigidity and flexibility in order to uphold institutional rules, whilst also being able to meet youths' different needs in specific situations in a personal, yet not private, manner. Professionalism is understood as providing a caring distance, in other words, a temporary emotional involvement with the youth. The staffs' reasoning and understanding of their work show how to manage emotional labour in a setting where the youth can be seen as both dangerous and vulnerable. The emotional energy is primarily connected to the long-lasting relation amongst staff and not to the youth, and hence, it is of primary importance to form a shared collective discretionary practice.

I denna antologi fokuseras och diskuteras barnkonventionen som rättsligt och praktiskt verktyg utifrån olika forskningsområden och praktiska verksamheter. Bokens författare är forskare tillhörande olika vetenskapliga discipliner, var med barnkonventionens praktiska innebörd relateras till forskning inom ämnena offentlig rätt, civilrätt, socialt arbete, rättssociologi, folkhälsovetenskap, socialmedicin och hälsopolitik, svenska som andraspråk, semiotik, utvecklingspsykologi och statsvetenskap. Vidare medverkar författare från Barn- och utbildningsförvaltningen i Simrishamn och Barnfonden med konkreta exempel på barnrättsarbete i praktiken. I antologin diskuteras barnkonventionen som normförändrande verktyg såväl som praktiskt redskap i Sverige och internationellt, men också utifrån kritiska perspektiv där begränsningar, motsättningar och dilemman kan finnas i praktiken. Tanken är att boken genom sin tvärvetenskapliga ansats och med utgångspunkt i forskning ska bidra till vidare reflektion och kunskap kring barnkonventionens betydelse och funktion för professionella aktörer och för barns levnadsvillkor. Perspektiv på barnkonventionen riktar sig till studenter, forskare och praktiker inom de olika ämnes- och verksamhetsområdena

We report a five-nations project in comparative child protection to provide recommendations on policy and practice to inform the redevelopment of the Swiss child protection system. The Swiss Federal Government and the Optimus and Oak Foundations commissioned the project—collective title: Association Programme National pour la Protection de l'Enfant. We identify the historical developmental trajectories of child protection systems together with common drivers: the evidential basis for the prevalence and effects of child abuse, the co-joining of social and economic policies and practices to promote early investment in children, the influence of children's rights and comparative international league tables on child well-being. We describe the cross-national project methodology and analysis of results. Three key indicators for the performance of national child protection systems are indicated: creating a culturally sensitive child protection governance framework, building a relational heart and using evidence to inform policy and practice. These encapsulate the recommendations made with respect to the Swiss child protection system. The results provide a prototype model with potential utility in similar cross-national studies, and add weight to the argument that cross-cultural learning in the context of a globalised society is not only possible, but desirable.