This open access edited volume investigates children and youth's deep entanglement in today's major global, national, and local transformations and processes: wherein they are not mere spectators and objects of transformations but instead actively shape them through various social, economic, and political representations. International contributions illuminate the problems that arise when children's rights and participation become a site of contestation and power over who represents whom, what, when, and where. The authors do not provide simple solutions, instead offering an understanding of the fundamental nature of these problems as founded in the application of rights and the nature of representation in modern society. Together, the authors emphasize that child representation must take into account the local and spatial context of how representations of children are discussed, as well as possible discrepancies between local, regional, national, and global processes.
Author(s): Bengt Sandin, Jonathan Josefsson, Karl Hanson, Sarada Balagopalan
Series: Studies in Childhood and Youth
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 342
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Chapter 1: Representing Children
The Challenge of Children’s Representation
Childhood Politics: From Rights and Participation to Representation
Children’s Representation and the International Politics of Children’s Rights
Children’s Representation in Times of Inequalities and Injustices
Conclusion
References
Newspapers
Part I: Childhood Politics: From Rights and Participation to Representation
Chapter 2: Recognizing Children’s Rights: From Child Protection to Children’s Human Rights—The 1979 Swedish Ban on Corporal Punishment in Perspective
Introduction
Corporal Punishment and Abusive Treatment: Age, Class, and Gender—Regulations and Norms 1900–1930
State Responsibility: Punishment or Upbringing, Regulation and Prohibition 1930–1950
State Responsibility for Children in Institutional Care Versus Parental Rights 1950–1960
The Family Is Not Outside the Law: Parents’ Right to Corporal Punishment Is Increasingly Questioned
The Human Rights of Children: The Official Government Report
In Conclusion, Particular or Universal Rights
References
Chapter 3: Adults in Charge: The Limits of Formal Child Participatory Processes for Societal Transformation
Introduction
From Objects to Subjects of International Social Policy: A Turning Point Influenced by the Convention on the Rights of the Child?
Decentring the Adult in Child Participatory Processes for Transformational Change
Taking a Long Historical View to Understand the Transformational Potential of Children’s Participation: The Case of the Soweto Uprising of 1976
Conclusion
References
Chapter 4: Children’s Participation in Their Right to Education: Learning from the Delhi High Court Cases, 1998–2001
Introduction
From Children’s ‘Voices’ to ‘Citizenship’: Situating the Right to Education Within Existing Conceptualizations Around Children’s Participation
Delhi High Court Cases, 1998–2001
Conclusion
References
Chapter 5: Representing the Child Before the Court
Introduction
Section 1
Understanding Children’s Access to Justice: From an “Artificially Constructed Incapacity” to Effective Legal Assistance
Does “Child-Friendly” Bring More Justice to Children?
Modeling Children’s Access to Justice
Section 2
Professional Legal Representation as a Fundamental Part of Access to Justice
Lăcătuş v. Switzerland: Bridging the Local to the Global
Lawyering for Children: Protection or Redress?
Children’s Representation as a Local and Global Practice
Children’s Representation and the State: Socio-economic Rights or Civil Liberties?
Lawyering for Children as Interpretation, Translation and Transmission
Epistemological Challenges of Power Delegation in Courts
Conclusions: Toward a Mutually Significant Alliance?
Notes
References
Part II: Children’s Representation and the International Politics of Children’s Rights
Chapter 6: ‘Could It Be That They Do Not Want to Hear What We Have to Say?’ Organised Working Children and the International Politics and Representations of Child Labour
Introduction
Shifting Priorities in Child Labour Policy
Reconsidering Convention 138
Smokey Mountain
Targeting the Intolerable
Discussion: The Paradox of Institutionalisation
“We Do Not Want Them to Represent Us”
Working Children Get Organised
The Kundapur Meeting
From Amsterdam to Oslo
Discussion: The Paradox of a Children’s Right to Participation
Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour
The Global March Against Child Labour
The Worst Forms of Child Labour
Discussion: Two Lovers Locked in Romance
Concluding Remarks
Notes
References
Chapter 7: “Children Without Childhood”: Representations of the Child-Soldier as an International Emergency
Introduction
Within Boundaries: Banning the Use of the Child-Soldier
The Governed Childhood and Its Many Exclusions: (Re)presenting the Pathological Child-Soldier
Final Thoughts
References
Chapter 8: Children’s Representation in the Transnational Mirror Maze
Introduction
A World Coalition Against Child Soldiering
The Children of the World vs. Climate Change
How to Escape the Mirror Maze?
Conclusion
References
Part III: Children’s Representation in Times of Inequalities and Injustices
Chapter 9: Deliberative Disobedience as a Strategy for Claiming Rights and Representation in the Family: The Case of Accra’s Street Children
Introduction
Rights and Representation in the Context of Urban Informality
Researching Urban Informal Childhoods
A Quest for Representation and Rights
Assertiveness and Disregard for Parental Authority
The Conjunction of Children’s Remittances, Rights, Representation and Authority
Conclusion
References
Chapter 10: Combatting Child Poverty in the Childhood Moratorium: A Representational Lens on Children’s Rights
Introduction
Child Poverty and Children’s Rights: A Representational Approach
The Childhood Moratorium as the Political Domain for Representational Claims
Representational Claims in the Childhood Moratorium: Differences Between Children and Parents
Researching Parental Perspectives on Child Poverty
Child Poverty: An Educational Issue?
Child Poverty and Leisure Time
Child Poverty and Parental Support
Child Poverty and Education
Child Poverty: A Social Issue?
Child Poverty and Housing
Child Poverty and Health
Child Poverty and Material Support
Conclusion
References
Chapter 11: Child Figurations in Youth Climate Justice Activism: The Visual Rhetoric of the Fridays for Future on Instagram
Globality, Digital Observation, and Participatory Culture
Children’s Political Representation and Climate Activism: Literature Review
Uneven Possibilities of Image Events: The Child Speaking Truth to Power
Childhood Figurations of the Global Mass-movement
Alternative Childhood Figurations: Mass-by-Proxy and Globality-by-Proxy
Childhood Figurations of Competence and Assuming Responsibility
Childhood Figurations of the Creative Play of Activism
Conclusion: Climate Action When There Is No Time to Grow Up
References
Chapter 12: Political Strategies of Self-representation: The Case of Young Afghan Migrants in Sweden
Introduction
The Political Representation of Children and Youth
The Governing Power of Representing Children and Youth
Political Strategies of Self-representation: The Case of Young Migrants in Sweden
Rejecting Previous Forms of Representation
Establishing, Shaping, and Controlling Identities
Creating (New) Political Space
Making Opponents and Allies
Conclusion
References
Chapter 13: Political Representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth in Australia
Introduction
Theorising Childhood as Risk and Renewal to the Demos
Childhood in Colonial Contexts: The Infantilization of Indigenous Peoples
Representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children as Sources of Risk
Conclusion: Renewal and the Transformative Potential of Indigenous Children’s Representation
References
Index
