The agency of children from family to global human rights

Wragg, Mike

doi:10.1080/21594937.2013.823814

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…As such, the view we take in our own research is that listening is a social practice, existing in affective, cultural, embodied, relational, temporal, and spatial configurations. We argue that dominant understandings of listening to children rely heavily on cognitive, conceptual, and rational models of idealised and superficial forms of communication that ignore the everyday, embodied, and lived experiences of 'sentiment devices' (Oswell, 2013). While agreeing with positions that voices only become political speech through relationships, we also argue that the moment of encounter with children's voices needs further attention because it is precisely that moment in which a connection becomes (im) possible.…”

Section: Listening Without Hearingmentioning

confidence: 85%

Learning to Listen: Exploring the Idioms of Childhood

Nolas

Aruldoss

Varvantakis

2018

Sociological Research Online

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How do we recognise children's participation and their relationships to public life? Drawing on evidence from ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2014-2016 for the ERC funded Connectors Study on the relationship between childhood and public life, this paper explores the ways in which children communicate their encounters with public life. Τhe contemporary phenomenon of listening without hearing is discussed as this relates to the call for listening to children and the simultaneous failure to hear what they say. Idioms are introduced as an 'instrument' for thinking through what it means and feels like to encounter and make sense of childhood and children's practices of relating to public life. The analysis focuses on three emblematic encounters with six-to eight-year-old children living in Athens, Hyderabad, London. We argue that dominant understandings of listening to children rely heavily on cognitive, conceptual and rational models of idealised and largely verbal forms of communication that ignore the affective, embodied and lived dimensions of making meaning. Through ethnographic thick description we trouble what it means to tune into children's worlds and to 'properly hear', and in so doing demonstrate the ways in which idioms support an understanding of what matters to children. Drawing on evidence from ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2014-2016 for the ERC funded Connectors Study on childhood and public life, this paper develops the concept of idioms as an 'tuning device' for understanding children's cultures and their communication therein, as meaningful and agentic. The term idiom, as used in anthropological and other social science literatures, provides an understanding of the act of communication that goes beyond linguistics and spoken language. It shifts attention towards communication as a social, cultural, temporal, as well as fully sensory act, that includes gestures, practices, actions, and affect. As such, idioms are a way of world-making and this paper focuses specifically on those idioms that were mobilised by children to make sense of and communicate their encounters with and experiences of public life. Children in the study understood public life as activities, places, and things that were accessible, communal, civil and political, known and open (e.g. a range of institutions, parks, toilets, voting, etc). A number of children also commented on the difficulty, also found in the literature, of providing a definition of public life (e.g. 'I don't know how to describe what I know aboutit'). In the social science literature and in practice, such encounters and experiences are often referred to as children's participation and much has been made in theory and in practice of 'listening to children' as a medium for participation. While the failure to listen is systemic and often political, we argue that useful sensitising devices (concepts used to think and act with), such as we have found idioms to be, can support theory and practice development that better resonates with everyday childh...

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Section: Listening Without Hearingmentioning

confidence: 85%

Learning to Listen: Exploring the Idioms of Childhood

Nolas

Aruldoss

Varvantakis

2018

Sociological Research Online

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“…In particular, we see that children are not dependent on adult interventions [11] but negotiate these interventions, and that their participatory capability retroacts on their institutional environments, thereby questioning the homogenized category of "childhood" [12]. This contributes to the "ontological turn" [25,26] in the sociology of childhood as the materiality of the children's environment is reintroduced, contributing to the transition from an oppositional approach (agency versus structure) to a co-muting approach in terms of assemblages (agency within structure) [27][28][29]. Our study especially reinforces the theory of situated agency, which emphasizes the dual structuration of subjects (children) and objects (rights) occurring in situated agency (in given contexts) [30].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s Participatory Capability in Organized Leisure: The Mediation of Transactional Horizons

2023

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This research conducted in Switzerland addresses the participatory capability of children regarding their organized leisure activities. Observations were made in 2016 in three French-speaking counties in Switzerland within 11 leisure facilities differentiated by their structural organization. Individual interviews were conducted with 34 children aged 13 to 16 as well as 11 managers of the leisure centers and three county-level child and youth policy-makers (Fribourg, Valais, Vaud). The findings are that children’s participatory capability in organized leisure facilities depends on a combination of factors that are both societal (economical, political, organizational) and personal. Three forms of participatory capability emerge around the opportunities for effective participation that are provided by the children’s social environment, corresponding to (1) the adaptive participation, (2) the innovative participation and (3) the cooperative participation. However, there is no strict correspondence between the types of organization of leisure structures and forms of participatory capability. This is due to the mediation of “transactional horizons”, acting as symbolic landscapes that are channeling social interactions and the negotiation of forms of participation. This confirms the relevance of an interpretive approach to children’s rights in order to better understand how they actually translate into practice.

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“…Ofosu-Kusi (2017) defines children's agency as their "capacity to act independently, make decisions, and engage in actions out of their own volition" (p. 4). Children's agency can manifest through their chosen participation in activities or events, or through their capacity to act and see their actions generate an impact in their lives and/or on the world (Kumpulainen et al, 2014;Oswell, 2013;Lieten, 2008;Percy-Smith & Thomas, 2010). When children have room to exercise their agency and see its impact, they build confidence in themselves, their competencies, and their place in the world.…”

Section: Children's Agency and Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s digital play as collective family resilience in the face of the pandemic

Burke

Kumpulainen

Smith

2023

Journal of Early Childhood Literacy

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In this article we explore how digital play as conducted through various social media and online meeting platforms facilitated resiliency and confidence building in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using day-in-the-life methodology and narrative inquiry, we disseminate and examine observations collected on children aged 2-10 during lockdown in a Newfoundland neighbourhood. Children utilized platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Zoom to embrace their agentic digital play in ways that repurposed the platforms to fulfil life milestones and social needs otherwise impacted and disrupted by pandemic restrictions. Through a series of vignettes and interviews, our research not only examines how such digital play benefits children and their healthy development, but how parents reacted to and assisted with their children’s agentic digital platform manipulation and how this provided positive benefits and enriching experiences to the entire family. We additionally explore the conflicts and tensions both children and parents encountered in securely implementing free play via digital platforms, including fears of excess screen-time, digital dependency, and online threats, all of which risk limiting children’s ability to independently explore their creativity and identities through digital play if not handled sensitively. Despite the hurdles to implementing digital play, this study exposes why it is essential for families to navigate this online terrain; this study ultimately poses that digital play and online platforms not only were beneficial to maintaining and building family resilience during the pandemic but will be vital assets in sustaining resiliency and positive mindsets moving forward with pandemic recovery.

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The agency of children from family to global human rights

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Learning to Listen: Exploring the Idioms of Childhood

Learning to Listen: Exploring the Idioms of Childhood

Children’s Participatory Capability in Organized Leisure: The Mediation of Transactional Horizons

Children’s digital play as collective family resilience in the face of the pandemic

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