The call for abstracts is now open for a new Special Issue of the journal Welfare e Ergonomia (ANVUR Class A), dedicated to childhood policies and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services.

Guest edited by Anna Milione and Maura Tripi, this issue aims to foster a multidisciplinary and transnational debate on public policies for children, with the objective of placing children’s agency and their individual rights to personal development at the center of the discussion, from a perspective that can be translated into concrete policy recommendations.

Topics of Interest

The editors welcome empirical and theoretical contributions addressing the following themes:

• Universalism and inequalities: access to ECEC services for children aged 0–6 as a tool to reduce social inequalities and educational poverty; definition of Essential Levels of Performance (LEPs); economic, cultural, and social barriers to participation.
• Childhood policies and action plans (National Recovery and Resilience Plan – PNRR; National Child Guarantee Action Plan): critical analyses of policy measures and investments, local governance models, territorial disparities, and integrated 0–6 education hubs.
• Care work and professional roles: working conditions of early childhood educators, professional training, shortages of qualified staff, and the social recognition of the profession.
• Pedagogical perspectives and children’s agency: innovative educational practices, relationships between different components of the integrated 0–6 system and subsequent levels of education, and children’s active participation.
• Support for families with children: multisectoral integration of interventions during the first 1,000 days of life, and integration of social, health, and educational services for children aged 0–6.

Submission Deadlines and Guidelines

• 27 September: Submission of abstracts (maximum 3,000 characters, including spaces).
• 24 January (if the abstract is accepted): Submission of the full paper—either a theoretical contribution or an empirical research article—of no more than 25,000 characters, including spaces.

Abstracts should be submitted to: welfarergonomia.rel@irpps.cnr.it