A Handbook of Children and Young People’s Participation by Percy-Smith, Barry; Patrick Thomas, Nigel; O'Kane, Claire;

Short description:

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.

Long description:

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, the book 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.

Table of Contents:

0.Introduction: The shifting landscape of children and young people’s participation: looking forward, looking back.  Part one: Reflection.  Section one: Continuing challenges.  1.Children’s participation in transformational development: reflections emerging from praxis.  2.Youth participation in Aotearoa New Zealand: rationales, rights and responsiveness.  3.Discursive barriers to children's political influence.  Section two: Intergenerational dynamics and the role of adults.  4.‘There was no fence’: reconceptualising children’s participation for transformative change within a school context.  5.Overcoming the adult gaze in participatory research with young people.  6.Transformative constraints in practices of co-production with social workers and young people in Hong Kong. 7.What about my voice? Facilitating the participation of disabled children and young people with complex communication needs through independent advocacy.  8.Transformative spaces: intergenerational partnership and personal transformation at the heart (and art) of child participation.  Part two: Learning.  Section one: Participation as a learning process.  9.Youth participation with a purpose? Promoting the transformative power of remote action-reflection research with Brazilian youth in conditions of resource insecurity.  10.Politics, participation and the pandemic: reflections on new democratic engagement and participatory inquiry growing up under Covid-19.  11.‘Hope in the present’: foregrounding uncertainty in transformative education for sustainability in the Global South.  12.Realisation of children’s right to participate using Action Research principles: a Kenyan case study.  Section two: Children and young people as researchers. 13.Children’s Circle of Learning: doing critical sexuality education in India.  14.From principles to practice: application of child participation principles in collaborative participatory research between children and adults in Mali, Somalia and Sudan.  15.Peer research, power and ethics: navigating participatory research in an Africa-focused mobilities study before and during Covid-19.  16.Adventures in youth-led research with disabled young people in the UK and Japan.  17.Learning from experience: Sistematización of ten years of action research by children and adolescents with CESESMA in Nicaragua. Section three: Participation seen from ‘above’ and ‘below’.  18.Representation and conflict: tensions of youth participation.  19.Children’s participation in Aotearoa New Zealand: changes, challenges and indigenous critiques.  20.Affecting change in different contexts: children’s participation in social and public policy dialogues in Brazil, Canada and South Africa.  21.I-participate: culture and identity in enabling meaningful opportunities.  Part three: Action.  Section one: Children and young people as activists.  22.How perception of agency influences young people’s activism in the UK.  23.Children and young people’s activism in Brazil: from the fringes of society to the centre of decision-making.  24."Asamblea de Niñas": exploring the bonds between children's participation and the feminist movement in Buenos Aires.  25.Being a young political actor: reflections with young domestic abuse survivors from the frontline of transformative participation.  26.Understanding children's participation using the capability approach.    Section two: Children and young people contesting inequalities and striving for inclusion.  27.Political mobilization through everyday struggles: children’s participation in Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST).  28.Courageous Conversations: youth participatory action research as resistance. 29.The future is ours: young people and the inclusive city.  30.Belonging and agency: the transformatory power of participatory design with children affected by displacement.  Section three: Children and young people responding to the climate crisis.  31.'It’s up to you, me – all of us!' Children’s participation in Scotland’s Climate Assembly.  32.Transformative learning and societal change in climate policy: a participatory workshop with children and youth.  33.Greta Thunberg’s climate activism: challenging generational and economic power.  34.Conclusion: moving forwards for meaningful and transformative participation.