This challenging book had its origins in the seminar series convened by Nigel Thomas when he was a colleague in the Department of Childhood Studies at Swansea University. From its inception the Department, now the Centre for Child Research, has featured a strong shared commitment to interdisciplinary work informed by a discourse of children's rights, and in particular to exploring the potential and meaning of children's ‘participation’. Our disciplines include sociology, education, psychology and health sciences, each with its own knowledge base and values, and implicit and explicit ways of thinking, acting and meaning-making. Viewing the child as competent is thus contextualised and interpreted within the frame of particular disciplines. For example, in relation to my own discipline of education, a commitment to children's rights and participation has underpinned our explorations with early years teachers of the significance of the strong, ‘rich’ child of the Reggio Emilia pre-schools. It is also reflected in our involvement in an exciting study (Waller et al., 2006), inspired by the work of Mary Kellett and led by Nigel Thomas, in which colleagues formed a research team with children from two local primary schools and provided them with research training and support, so enabling them to explore issues which they identified as being important or of concern.

The research seminars organised by Nigel Thomas were especially challenging. First, while the three extended seminars which have led to this book were underpinned by a shared commitment to children as competent social actors, collectively they moved us into unexplored territory, challenging participants to explore the intersections between children's and young people's participation, children and young people as refugees, and children's and young people's use of language. Second, presentations were given by speakers from an even more diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds, and focused on children of different ages in different contexts engaged in ordinary and, as it appeared to many of us, extraordinary activity. Third, the seminar series attracted regular attendance from academics across the University (including colleagues from geography, law and medicine), as well as local practitioners (from headteachers to staff from non-governmental organisations). As a result, the seminars not only led to lively debate but also provided a focus for, and extended, the multidisciplinary work routinely being undertaken within the Department.