Childlife 2024

We invite contributions such as:  

• empirical studies exploring the relationship between childhood and sustainability, providing perspectives for understanding sustainability
• studies and theoretical perspectives on interrelated aspects of children, childhood and sustainability 
• empirical studies on children and young people in everyday life: social, cultural, health and material diversity and inequality in children/young people’s worlds, around the globe
• theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to explorations of children’s lives and of professional practices involving children and young people
• studies of professional and interprofessional practices involving children, young people and their caregivers
• studies of higher education within professional and interprofessional practices with children and young people

More about themes for the conference

Children and young people live diverse everyday lives. As in the preceding conferences, the third international Childlife conference invites contributions covering a broad range of contemporary issues and perspectives concerning children and young people in everyday life and professional practices.

For this conference, we are inspired by the UN sustainable development goals, which address the need for increased action for a more sustainable future. The consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly evident, resulting in extreme weather events and catastrophes. Social inequalities are increasing in many countries, resulting in poverty for many families with children.

The COVID-19 pandemic has, for some years and in various ways, affected the lives of children around the world. In Europe, we have seen a full-scale war, along with other wars around the world, resulting in thousands of children and families having to leave their homes and establish a new life in an unknown country.

Digitalization and social media also affect children’s everyday lives, representing both resources and challenges for children’s family life, participation and exclusion.

These complex conditions affect children and young people in various ways, but all children share the experience of living in an unsafe world with rapid changes. Similarly, these conditions also represent challenges for professionals and institutions engaged in children’s health, education, well-being and welfare, and their collaboration with children, young people and their families.

There is a need for research that, in various ways, provides knowledge about these challenges, and we need research about sustainability at local, national and global levels.

We invite contributions that address some of these themes. The concept of sustainability is used in a broad sense, and we welcome critical perspectives on sustainability.  

Submit your abstract

Deadline for abstract submission is 1 April, 2024.  

Abstract submissions are accepted only electronically by using the online submission form.  

Please use this form to submit your abstract (nettskjema.no).

Accepted contributions will be presented either as oral presentation, poster or symposium workshop presentations, according to the final decision by the Scientific Committee.

If you want to submit a proposal for a self-organized symposium (90 minutes, 3-4 papers), please note that the chair has to submit a title and an overall description of the proposed symposium as an abstract. Moreover, all the individual abstracts that take part in the symposium must be uploaded in one file.

If you have any questions about the submission process, please contact the conference secretariat directly. See contact information on this web page.

Submission instructions

• Title: The title should be typed in using small letters, title starting with a capital letter, and should not exceed 15 words.  
• Authors and affiliations: Please fill in the author details as requested in the form. Number of co-authors is limited to 5 per abstract.
• Body of the abstract: The maximum size of the abstract is 250 words. The abstract must include the following: Background aims, Methods, Results and Conclusions.  

Terms and conditions

In submitting an abstract all presenters agree to the following terms and conditions:  

• I confirm that each author / presenter listed agree with the content of this abstract and has given permission to be listed as an author / presenter.
• I have checked the accuracy of the information and referencing within this abstract.  
• I understand that should my abstract be accepted for presentation, I am required to complete a conference registration. I understand that my abstract will not be published until my registration and full payment has been received.
• I hereby provide permission for the Organisers and Committee of the Conference to publish my abstract in the Conference.
•  I understand that my abstract will be published, if accepted, as submitted and that no editing to grammar or spelling will be undertaken by the Organizing Committee.  

• Early bird, 29 April - 15 June: 2900 NOK
• Ordinary fee, 15 June - 1 September: 3600 NOK
• Late registration fee, 2 September - 15 September: 4000 NOK
• Students and pensioners, 15 June - 1 September: 1000 NOK
• Late registration fee for students and pensioners, 2 September - 15 September: 1500 NOK
• One-day participation: 1500 NOK 

The Childlife research group is a research group at Oslo Metropolitan University. The central aim of the group is to investigate the key relationships involved in the everyday lives of children, from birth to the age of 18 years.

An important ambition of the research group is to develop theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches and empirical knowledge that embrace the child within and across various institutional, social and cultural contexts. 

OsloMet is a major Norwegian university, with around 21,000 students and 2,100 employees. We offer undergraduate and postgraduate education, in addition to PhD programmes, within the fields of education, health and welfare.