Youthful Political Presence: Right, Reality and Practice of the Child

Abstract

This chapter discusses youthful political agency in terms of political presence from three perspectives: as rights, practices, and realities. It proposes a focus on the relational politics of childhood and youth that are spatiotemporally embedded, identifying youthful agency as a concurrent state of being and becoming. “Presence” is discussed as relational existence in the lived world where children and young people are recognized and authorized as meaningful, active, and influential members of their communities, to a lesser or greater extent. “Politics” is understood broadly as an aspect pertinent to all communal life, devoid of association with particular scalar dimensions or spatial constructions. Empirically, youthful politics is acknowledged ranging from formal participation and civic activities to direct democracy practices, activism, and mundane engagements. From the perspective of rights, it is argued that youthful political presence is internally paradoxical, providing for communal positions that are constantly potentially shifting and thus unstable as bases for position taking and activities. Approached as practices, different interpretations of youthful political presence are introduced as defining to its feasibility, both in the form of authoritative interpretations and youthful negotiations unfolding in action. Third, the plurality of children and young people’s political realities is seized through spatiotemporal situatedness, appreciating youthful agencies as conditioned by the past and compelled by the future. In conclusion, a move forward from approaches that contrast micro- and macro-political relations is suggested. Alongside their active roles, the situatedness of children and young people in their lived worlds of plurality and difference is proposed as an important starting point for future research, involving spatial as well as temporal dimensions.