AbstractThis article explores the multiple and shifting meanings of children's activism and addresses some of the potential benefits and disadvantages of framing a given set of practices as children's activism. After recognizing the potential dangers of overuse of the term, we offer our own conceptual understanding of children's activism, focusing on collectivity, challenging expectations and transforming power. Further, in questioning what is new and old in theory and practice on children's activism, we illustrate how scholars and practitioners supporting children's participation can benefit from established literature, strategies and tools from youth activism and broader work on social movements.
Children's participation and accountability to children are increasingly common aspirations of child-focused organisations; development agencies and research institutions frequently use young people's advisory councils as one path to participation. A key challenge is to not only find meaningful ways to institutionalise children's views as part of organisational decision making, but also to identify and address barriers to participation. This article presents the findings of a commissioned landscape assessment to identify good practices and lessons learned from child-focused agencies, in order to inform the operationalisation of children's requests on programme improvements and accountability to children. The study was exploratory and qualitative. It included primary and secondary data collection, including a desk review, key informant interviews with adults and young people, and focus group discussions with young people. The findings showed common elements of organisational models of child participation and insights from children and young people on the types of decisions they want to influence, reasons why they should be heard, and how-to approaches to support their meaningful participation. Other findings focused on key challenges of children's participation in governance, including adult mindsets, low capacity, and structural restrictions, and lessons learned on enabling factors, such as organisation-wide buy-in, and space and inclusion for children and young people. Further inquiry could inform the purpose, scope, and appropriateness of child participation in governance structures within child-focused organisations.
"This new edition of A Handbook of Children and Young People's Participation brings together work from research and practice to reflect on some of the key developments in the field since the first edition published in 2010. Subtitled 'Conversations for Transformational Change', the collection focuses on both ongoing and new discourses that enable us to advance thinking and practice to better understand what it means for participation to be transformational. Featuring all new content, it explores the developments that have been achieved in theory and practice in the last decade as well as the challenges and indeed, the limitations of dominant participation approaches with children and young people in achieving genuine societal transformation. A key feature of the Handbook is the inclusion of young people as co-authors in many of the chapters. Foregrounding aspects of participation as experienced by diverse groups of children and young people, it especially illuminates the experiences and perspectives of participation relating to groups of children who face particular challenges, such as displaced children and children living with disabilities and young people from indigenous groups in a range of contexts. The broad spectrum of debates that the text covers will be invaluable in challenging and transforming thinking and practice for a wide range of scholars, practitioners, activists and young people themselves. It will additionally be suitable for use on a wide range of courses including childhood and youth studies, sociology, law, political studies, community development, development studies, children's rights, citizenship studies, education, and social work"--
In: Chukwudozie , O , Feinstein , C , Jensen , C , O'Kane , C , Pina , S , Skovdal , M & Smith , R 2015 , ' Applying community-based participatory research to better understand and improve kinship care practices : insights from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone ' , Family and Community Health , vol. 38 , no. 1 , pp. 108-119 . https://doi.org/10.1097/FCH.0000000000000052
While the principles behind community-based participatory research are firmly established, the process of taking community-based participatory research with children and youth to scale and integrating it into the programming of non-governmental organizations has been scarcely documented. This article reflects on the experiences of Save the Children in implementing a multicountry community-based participatory research program to increase understanding of kinship care in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. The article discusses challenges faced and lessons learned and highlights how the research process enabled action and advocacy initiatives at different levels-leading to an increase in support and policy attention for children living in kinship care.