Abstract
This chapter employs a critical lens to understanding some of the popular discourses that emerge and intersect in the field of children and young people’s participation, in particular discourses of rights, citizenship, childhood and youth. The chapter argues that these discourses have helped strengthen the case for children and young people’s participation but that they also rely on and reproduce an idealised image of the young citizen that may limit and exclude those who fail to fit the mould.
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- 1.
Much of the content was also strongly tied to his relatively recent edited book, ‘The future of children’s rights’ (Freeman 2014).
- 2.
See, for example, Hordyk et al. (2014) research with immigrant and refugee children in Canada whose experience of local forests was full of real and potential dangers from human and animal predators.
- 3.
See, for example, Chawla (1998, 1999, 2006), Horowitz (1996), Ewert et al. (2005), Bixler et al. (2002), Lohr et al. (2005), Wells and Lekies (2006).
- 4.
While Piaget is the focus here, there are a number of other influential developmental thinkers and models worth mentioning (e.g., Lawrence Kohlberg ’s model of moral development and Sigmund Freud’s model of psychosexual development).
- 5.
While ‘the new sociology of childhood’ has been used for the purposes of this book, the field is also commonly referred to within the literature as ‘the new social science of childhood’ and ‘the sociology of childhood’.
- 6.
In line with the literature and the UNCRC, I use ‘children’s rights’ to encompass children and young people’s rights.
- 7.
As of writing, the only country not to have ratified the Convention is the United States.
- 8.
For examples, see Veerman (1992) who has collated 42 separate international and national declarations and charters of children’s rights.
- 9.
‘States Parties’ refers to those countries that have ratified the UNCRC.
- 10.
See Woodhead (2003) for a more detailed analyses.
- 11.
See Freeman (1998: 435-437) for a more detailed outline of the links between the new sociology of childhood and children’s rights.
- 12.
One notable exception is Archard’s (1993) book, Children: Rights and Childhood, which is considered the first book to offer a detailed examination of the philosophical nature of children’s rights. Theoretically, the book draws on oft-cited philosophers in the field childhood studies (e.g., Ariès , Locke, Rousseau) as well as some reference to other classic philosophers, including Rawls , Kant , Plato, Aristotle , Sartre , and Freud.
- 13.
Governance, simply stated, is the act of controlling, influencing, or regulating a person, place, system, or event.
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Hartung, C. (2017). Citizenship, Rights and All Things Nice: Key Discourses Underpinning Children and Young People’s Participation. In: Conditional Citizens. Perspectives on Children and Young People, vol 5. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3938-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3938-6_2
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