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Children's Agency (children + agency)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences75%

Selected Abstracts

Dialogic mediation in conflict resolution education

CONFLICT RESOLUTION QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2010
Claudio Baraldi
Conflict resolution education is an interesting field for both teachers and experts. This contribution tries to understand how conflict management can be productive in the interaction between adults and children. For this purpose, the results of field research are presented; they concern videotaped interaction in classrooms and formal groups of children coordinated by adults trying to support children's conflict management. The data show the adults' dialogic actions, which may promote children's conflict management, as well as the problems and limitations of these actions, highlighting coordination between adults' dialogic actions and children's agency in conflict resolution education. [source]

Tightening the net: children, community, and control

THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2001
Adrian L. James
ABSTRACT The recent move to revitalize social democracy in the UK under the New Labour government, explored by Giddens as ,the Third Way', embraces many of Etzioni's ideas on communitarianism. The principles that emerge from these political philosophies, such as the involvement of local communities in policy consultations and implementation, have largely been welcomed as a reflection of the aim of revitalizing civic society in the context of a range of social policies. It is argued, however, that for children, contrary to this general trend, many of these policies represent attempts to increase the social control of children. Their effect has been to restrict children's agency and their rights, rather than to increase their participation as citizens, and thus, in spite of the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children continue to be marginalized. [source]

,No one gives you a chance to say what you are thinking': finding space for children's agency in the UK asylum system

AREA, Issue 2 2010
Heaven Crawley
Drawing on research undertaken with separated children seeking asylum in the UK, this paper explores the ways in which children's political identities and experiences have been conceptualised in procedures for determining who is , and is not , in need of protection under international refugee law. The paper focuses in particular on the experiences of separated children during the asylum interview. It is suggested that the conduct of the interview not only indicates a basic lack of humanity and care in engaging with the experiences of separated asylum-seeking children, but also a particular conceptualisation of ,childhood' that undermines the ability of children to fully articulate their experiences and to secure access to the protection to which they are entitled. The consequence of this approach is not only that separated asylum-seeking children are significantly less likely than adults to be granted refugee status, but that children who express political views and agency may not be considered to be children at all. [source]

Childhood, Agency and Youth Justice

CHILDREN & SOCIETY, Issue 4 2009
Roger Smith
This article seeks to reframe debates in the sphere of youth justice in order to move away from narrow and one-sided conceptualisations of young people who offend and appropriate forms of intervention with them. Whilst different positions have been adopted within the field of youth justice, largely around ,justice' or ,welfare' models of practice, the apparent polarisation of this conflict has obscured an underlying consensus, namely that the ,problem' is the child or young offender, and he/she needs either to be helped or coerced into becoming a conforming adult citizen. Largely absent from the field of youth justice have been other theoretical influences such as consideration of the nature of ,agency' and the construction of childhood. These alternative perspectives could offer us some insight into the limitations of historical debates in youth justice policy and practice, as will as pointing the way towards innovative and progressive alternative forms of practice. The strengths and shortcomings of contemporary developments, such as restorative interventions, will be discussed in this context, and the article will conclude that there is scope for developing positive, young person-centred models of youth justice practice if we base these on a proper understanding of childhood and children's agency. [source]