Framing children’s lives through policy and public sphere debates on COVID-19: unequal power and unintended consequences

ABSTRACT

In this paper we analyze five dominant policy frames adopted by governments in their responses to children during the COVID-19 pandemic – the institutional, developmental, pathological, normative family and rights-excluding frames. We argue that these frames serve to meet the interests of non-child stakeholders in politically expedient ways, rather than addressing the needs of children and their families. We provide some suggestions for alternative policy approaches that take into account the interests of children, including understanding the ambivalent implications of lockdown, taking into account the social ecologies of children, and a renewed focus on children’s rights, most importantly children’s participation rights.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• childhood
• public policy
• framing
• COVID-19

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nick Turnbull

Tobia Fattore is a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Macquarie University. His theoretical and empirical research interests are in the broad areas of the sociology of childhood, in particular work relating to child participation, child protection and children’s well-being. With Professor Susann Fegter (Technische Universität Berlin) and Professor Christine Hunner-Kreisel (University of Vechta) he is the lead researcher on the multi-national study Children’s Understandings of Well-being - Global and Local Contexts.

Robin Redhead is Course Director in Politics and International Relations, Leeds Beckett University. Her research interest is human rights practice and feminist politics. She is the author of Exercising Human Rights: Gender, Agency and Practice (Routledge 2014) and has published in Human Rights Review, International Feminist Journal of Politics, International Journal of Human Rights and Peacebuilding.

Nick Turnbull* specializes in interpretive public policy research, with a focus on rhetoric and argumentation. His empirical research interests are social policy, and modern slavery and anti-trafficking policy. He has published most recently in Politics, Public Management Review, European Journal of Criminal Policy and Research, Policy and Society, and Public Policy and Administration.