Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn Brazil, Afro‐descendant children continue to be stigmatised and excluded due to race‐based discriminatory practices and attitudes inherited from colonial times. In order to challenge racism, Brazilian child activists (aged 13–17) instigated a movement encouraging children to wear Afro‐style hair as a symbol of contestation and liberation and to reject hair straightening as a form of domination. Based on empirical qualitative research conducted in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro, Recife and Fortaleza, this article discusses the intersection between children's participation and activism, and the use of Afro‐style hair as a tool of identity activism to restore the right to non‐discrimination on any grounds.

This article explores how privileges, identities and worldviews influence every stage of childhood research processes. By using the 'windows and mirrors' and 'the danger of the single story' metaphors, I seek to deconstruct reflexivity and positionality in order to include different lenses of analysis for exploring how power and privileges inform the relationship between researchers and child participants. I argue that this reflexive process needs to pay greater attention to the intersection between identities, inequalities and power, to the impact of researchers feeling sympathy for the marginalised status of the child participant and to the normative and dominant positions that researchers might have based on their social standing. Drawing from my international fieldwork experience, I conclude that an understanding of how identities, power and privileges affect childhood research is critical for conducting ethical research, negotiating power with child participants and dismantling researchers' privileges.

Academia and practice have increased their investment in young peoples' participation. One key approach has been the shift from extracting data from young people to engaging them as researchers. Drawing on 2 case studies with young Syrian refugees and Bangladeshi young people, this paper critically reflects on the tensions between participation, power, and ethics whilst engaging young people as lead researchers. There are dual objectives to young people-led research: (a) the empowerment of young people as investigators and (b) the study of issues important to young people. If not clearly established from the outset, these objectives may be in conflict. In such projects, the process and methodology work to achieve the aims of the study and young people's participation. The achievement of both objectives of young people-led research is partially dependent on adult facilitators' support of the research process. This article explores the role of adult professionals towards achieving the goals of rigorous research and young people's participation. These tensions commonly surface in research with young people and should be addressed by employing sensitive approaches that recognise young people as competent social actors with the ability to engage in research whilst taking into consideration relevant adult engagement and support.

AbstractChildren's right to participate has been one of the most challenging rights to implement due to dominant norms which position children under adults' authority. Notably, this has more negatively impacted girls than boys due to traditional gender norms and practices that often restrict girls' agency and are reproduced and unchallenged in many societies. To contest these struggles, young female activists (13–17 years) in Sierra Leone, who are the focus of this paper, engaged in direct actions to influence public decision‐making and prevent girls from being married during childhood. Drawing upon empirical evidence exploring the girls' activism experiences, this article explore, young female activists' practical work is an example of what intersectionality as praxis means by connecting social categories to inequalities and highlights that they saw themselves as social actors with the ability to negotiate power, take part in community‐based activism to end child marriage and network with others to seek justice for practices and attitudes they perceived to be abusive.

AbstractChildren and young people are increasingly participating in events organised by international organisations. In spite of a growing body of research on children's participation in decision‐making, little is known about their experiences and the perceptions of adults who attend. This article compares the experiences of 16 children and 12 adults who participated in high‐level global events. Three themes were identified, Representation, Capacity and Impact. Findings suggest that while children and adults identified similar opportunities and challenges for meaningful participation, children's perceptions of their engagement differed from adults' in that they were more likely to be positive about the value of their contribution.