Theorizing children’s global citizenship: Reconstructionism and the politics of deep interdependence

Abstract

Global citizenship is a much disputed term, involving a variety of competing neoliberal, cosmopolitan, and postcolonial framings. Much of this debate, however, assumes a hidden normative adulthood, just as did traditional understandings of citizenship in nation states. This article argues that attending to children’s experiences through a lens of childhood studies or childism opens up the possibility for more complex and profound theorizations of global participatory citizenship for all, both children and adults. In particular, the argument is advanced that global citizenship is better understood as a politics of reconstruction based on the aesthetic practice of interdependent political creativity. The key lies in understanding global political interdependence in a deep rather than superficial way as responding to children’s triple bind: their struggle all at once for self-empowerment, overcoming normative exclusions, and responsiveness from others.

Initiating decolonial praxis: childhood studies curricula in an English university

“…We reflect on the place and importance of voice to decolonise our curriculum as a project that requires engagement with understanding the perspectives of marginalised and 'othered' children, and equally their humanness (Desai and Sanya 2016). We are also mindful of the paradox in empowering children to speak for themselves as the role of adults in protecting and making decisions about children requires filtering of the questions that are being asked and choosing who speaks to answer them (Wall 2019). This makes the notion of children's voice somewhat problematic and requires us, as lecturers in positions of power/privilege, to continuously reflect on our selection of content and interpretations of voices.…”

Young people – citizens in times of climate change? A childist approach to human responsibility

“…'Childism' as elaborated on by Wall (2010) is the ethical grounding for the child-centred approach to be discussed. Other texts by Wall (2011Wall ( , 2019 and Josefsson and Wall (2020) are additional resources for the explorative discussion.…”

Empowered inclusion: theorizing global justice for children and youth

“…In a global environment, everyone is deeply interdependent. Regardless of age, global injustice involves what could be called a 'triple bind' of all at once being denied agency, being normatively marginalized, and not being responded to by others with power (Wall, 2019). An exploited child labourer faces the problem of simultaneously finding a powerful public voice, gaining normative authority to have that voice heard, and relying on powerful other groups for making that voice a response.…”

“…The first part of the paper takes three case studies of labour, migration, and climate activism as diverse data points to understand young people's experiences of struggle against global injustice. The second part uses these overlapping but diverse cases to help retheorize global justice in less adultist and more childist or child-responsive terms (Wall, 2010(Wall, , 2019. And the third part advances some preliminary suggestions about how such a conception of global justice might be operationalized in practice across three dimensions of global policies, institutions, and culture.…”