Children: Rights, Participation and Citizenship

Abstract

This article considers the possibility of rethinking citizenship so as to include children. Much current discussion of children and society is marked by a series of interlocking discourses which serve to problematize and marginalize children. This dominant `negative agenda' thrives untouched by recognition of the many complex and demanding responsibilities accepted by children or of the many degrading social forces that bear down equally on children and adults such as poverty and racism. To think anew about citizenship and children can prompt us to consider the similarity of concerns confronting child and adult, and to recognize the interdependence of our lives and how such interdependency is best fostered. What might such a rethinking of citizenship entail? The article argues that, in addition to reconsidering what we think it is to be a child (for instance ideas about incompetence and irrationality associated with childhood), we need to rethink the value of the language of rights and the social significance of this language. Rights are not just about state-citizen relations but about how civil society should imagine itself; in this context the imagery of social conversation and participation is central to the rethinking of citizenship. The language of citizenship, rights and participation is fragmentary and yet the contestation around these ideas is intensifying and opening up new possibilities of social organization and dialogue. By way of conclusion, the requirements of such a vision of citizenship are considered - what will be needed to make it a social possibility.