About the Journal

The journal Barn – forskning om barn og barndom i Norden has provided its readers with scientific articles exploring children and childhood in a Nordic context since 1983. Barn is an interdisciplinary journal within childhood studies, with articles from sociology, anthropology, geography, pedagogy, social psychology, history, philosophy, health services, social work and law. Articles have diverse theoretical and methodological approaches, and cover a wide range of topics, from children’s everyday lives and cultures to public services and policy-making involving children and their families. In such, Barn is of current interest for researchers, practitioners and decision-makers.

In addition to ordinary submissions, Barn regularly runs special issues. Among the many special issues published over the years are; children's rights, children in the local society, children and philosophy, children and cultural meetings, children and childhood in history, children and poverty, digital media in the everyday life of children and young people, children and parent support, and children, immigration and integration.

Barn is an open access and peer-reviewed journal published quarterly. Articles are published primarily in Scandinavian languages, or English in the case of Icelandic or Finnish contributions. 

Aims & scope

  • Barn – forskning om barn og barndom i Norden is a scientific journal within the interdisciplinary field of child and childhood studies
  • Barn seeks to provide a space for publication of original and critical research articles with clear contributions to the field of knowledge in childhood studies, for both early career and experienced researchers.
  • Barn is a forum for research on children and young people in a Nordic context, covering both contemporary and historical studies.
  • Barn embraces theoretical approaches that offer a critical stance to normative and taken-for-granted perceptions of children, youth, and childhood (for example post-humanist theory/ANT, post-colonial theory, sociocultural theory, visual theory, dialogical/interactional theory). Of paramount importance is the conceptualization of children’s childhoods as defined and structured by social, cultural, political and historical context, varying over time and place.
  • Barn publishes academic research that draws on a wide range of methodological approaches, where children’s inter- and intragenerational positions are at the core and children’s perspectives are valorized.
  • Barn covers a wide range of topics, from children’s everyday lives and cultures to public services and policy-making involving children and their families.
  • Barn is of current interest for researchers, practitioners and decision-makers within health, education and welfare sectors in society.

Open Access

Barn provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.