Framing children's citizenship: exploring the space of children's claims for social justice using Nancy Fraser's conception of representation

This paper seeks to contribute to a dynamic understanding of the space of children‟s citizenship by exploring perspectives generated by children age 5-13 in two countries in the light of Nancy Fraser‟s (2008) theory of representation. To ensure that understandings of the spaces of children‟s citizenship are guided by the views of children themselves, the paper reports findings from six Children‟s Research Groups who, in a process inspired by Freire (1973), acted and reflected on their understandings of citizenship using participatory methods that they created. The spaces they describe in their data were analysed drawing on Fraser‟s theories for reframing claims to social justice. This synthesis of empirical research and political theory suggests the need to supplement Fraser‟s theory of representation with more diffuse understandings of how influence occurs in relational spaces. The dynamic spaces of children‟s citizenship can then be conceived of as framed by a concern for social justice that children identify and deepened by exploring the way in relationships, institutions and networks influence the achievement of this claim over time, for different social groups. This approach enables children‟s citizenship to be located simultaneously in children‟s lived practices, in local and in global distributions of actions, attitudes and resources

Enacting children's citizenship: developing understandings of how children enact themselves as citizens through actions and acts of citizenship

Children have an unsettled relationship with the status of citizenship, being given some rights, responsibilities and opportunities for participation, and being denied others. Yet if citizenship is conceived of as a practice, children can be firmly seen as citizens in the sense that they are social actors, negotiating and contributing to relationships of social interdependence. This article develops understandings of children’s agency in citizenship and some of the different ways in which children’s actions enact them as interdependent citizens. It presents one aspect of the understanding of citizenship generated from research by six groups of marginalised children, aged 5-13, in Wales and France. Synthesising the research groups’ descriptions of activities they associated with the component parts of citizenship with citizenship theory, these children can be seen to engage in actions of citizenship that include making rules of social existence, furthering social good and exercising freedoms to achieve their own rights. Their activities also transgress the boundaries of existing balances of rights, responsibilities and statuses, through their (mis)behaviour, in ways that can be interpreted as Acts of citizenship. In children’s everyday activities, however, the distinction between actions and Acts of citizenship can at times be blurred. This is because recognizing aspects of children’s practices as citizenship is a challenge to dominant definitions of citizenship, and claims a new status for children. Exploring children’s citizenship in these ways has potential for widening understandings of participation and appreciating broader aspects of children’s agency in citizenship

We're still waiting for answers! Respond to children's questions on Brexit

Brexit has specific implications for children, not least because children within the UK and across the EU will live with the long term consequences of Brexit negotiations. As this child asks: “Should the decision be made by the youth of Britain (people who are going to live in the country that is left)?