Children, young people and civic participation: regulation and local diversity

Abstract

International and national political agendas have prioritized children's issues in the past decade or so. However the nature of the commitment to children themselves participating in arrangements that affect them and their communities are highly ambiguous. Whilst children's voices have become progressively louder, the extent to which these voices are articulated within spaces for participation over which children can genuinely claim ownership are often compromised by political structures determined by adults. This article examines these participatory spaces for children within the civic or political realm. Drawing on two distinct cases of civic participation, the paper explores the ways that young participants understand their relationship to adult structures and negotiate their roles as representatives of children's interests.

Notes

1. For the sake of brevity I will follow the United Nation's definition of childhood which includes all those aged between 0 and 18, and replace ‘children and young people’ with ‘children’.

2. The project, ‘Young people, citizenship and political participation: comparative case studies of young people's councils’ was funded by the British Academy, No. SG 31775. The author would like to thank Karen Hedges for the fieldwork.

3. The 2002 Education Act for England and Wales makes some reference to children's rights to consultation.

4. There is little systematic linkage between the UK youth parliament and more localized forums

5. In order to retain anonymity, the names of the case studies and the sample have been changed.

6. Connexions is a UK government initiative set up in 2002 to give children and young people aged between 13 and 19 access to advice and support on careers, health and social matters. Available online at: www.connexions.gov.uk.