Children&rsquo;s rights and wellbeing have increasingly attracted attention both politically and in the scholarly field [...

Alminde, Sarah

Warming, Hanne

English

Roskilde Universitet

RoskildeUniversityChildren’s Wellbeing and Children’s RightsA Nordic PerspectiveAlminde, Sarah; Warming, HannePublished in:Social SciencesDOI:10.3390/socsci13080426Publication date:2024Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordCitation for published version (APA):Alminde, S., & Warming, H. (2024). Children’s Wellbeing and Children’s Rights: A Nordic Perspective. SocialSciences, 13(8), Article 426. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13080426General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.            • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.            • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain.            • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal.Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact rucforsk@kb.dk providing details, and we will remove access to the workimmediately and investigate your claim.Download date: 10. Jan. 2025Citation: Alminde, Sarah, and HanneWarming. 2024. Children’s Wellbeingand Children’s Rights—A NordicPerspective. Social Sciences 13: 426.https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13080426Received: 13 August 2024Accepted: 13 August 2024Published: 16 August 2024Copyright: © 2024 by the authors.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This article is an open access articledistributed under the terms andconditions of the Creative CommonsAttribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).$€£ ¥ social sciencesEditorialChildren’s Wellbeing and Children’s Rights—ANordic PerspectiveSarah Alminde * and Hanne WarmingDepartment of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Unversitetsvej 1, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark;hannew@ruc.dk* Correspondence: sararas@ruc.dkChildren’s rights and wellbeing have increasingly attracted attention both politicallyand in the scholarly field. Despite almost all countries in the world having ratified the UNConvention on the Rights of the Child, ensuring children’s rights and wellbeing continuesto pose challenges and dilemmas across the globe. This is even the case in countriesregarded as frontrunners in the field, such as the Nordic countries. Drawing on experiencesfrom six Nordic countries—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and the FaroeIslands—this Special Issue addresses these challenges and dilemmas with a critical viewof policies and practices in which children are still underprivileged and their perspectivessilenced, and discusses how such challenges can be overcome.The Nordic countries share a history of a strong welfare state and are ranked amongthe top countries in the world regarding happiness, trust, economic success, and politicalstability. Consequently, the Nordic countries frequently draw international attention fortheir child policies and are perceived as exemplary due to their high-quality universaldaycare facilities and community schools. Furthermore, the Nordic countries have a long-standing commitment to child protection and welfare and are recognized as first-moversregarding children’s rights, for instance, in outlawing physical punishment (Sweden) andthe appointment of a state-funded children’s ombudsman (Norway). Nevertheless, inpractice, the Nordic countries have not yet reached the goal of ensuring that childrenenjoy equal rights on par with adults. They also struggle with various challenges tochildren’s wellbeing, as well as dilemmas that arise in practice between the dual goals ofprotection/education and the fulfillment of participation rights, in addition to internalissues within each of these goals. In 12 papers, this Special Issue addresses children’swellbeing, rights, and the related challenges and dilemmas in the Nordic countries across anumber of crucial contexts.Article 12 of the UNCRC, concerning children’s right to participation, has proven tobe one of the most difficult articles to implement in policies and practice. Several articles inthis Special Issue address challenges related to ensuring children’s right to participationacross various contexts, including daycare (Rasmussen and Schmidt 2024; Røn-Larsen andStanek 2024; Sevon et al. 2024), school (Steensen and Helms 2024), social work (Olesenand Videt 2024; Ingimarsdóttir and Egilson 2024), family law (Alminde 2024), and familylife (Gaini 2024). A common theme among the contributions is that they demonstrate thatensuring children’s right to participation presents practical and legal challenges, and that itentails more than simply stating the right to participation.Some of these challenges are connected to adultist assumptions and social norms inwhich the adult point of view is privileged, leading to the undermining or silencing ofchildren’s perspectives. Several authors (Biswas et al. 2024; Alminde 2024; Gaini 2024;Sundhall and Hillén 2024) in their contributions to this Special Issue take a critical stancetoward this adultism and advocate for a more child-centric policy and practice focus as apath to ensuring children’s right to participation and children’s wellbeing.Soc. Sci. 2024, 13, 426. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13080426 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/socsciSoc. Sci. 2024, 13, 426 2 of 4Biswas, Florio, Caso, Castelli, and Iacobino offer an instrument to monitor adultism asa basis for changes toward a more child-centric culture. In their paper “The AdultcentrismScale: A Potential Contributor to Advancing Children’s Participation Rights in NordicContexts”, they present ‘The Adultcentrism Scale’ research tool. This research tool can beused to evaluate the presence of adult-centric bias in adults in relation to children and canbe helpful in understanding the socio-psychological or cultural–psychological dimensionsof educational (power) relations.In the paper “Beyond the Shadow of Adults—Youth, Adultism, and Human Rights inthe Contemporary Faroe Islands”, Gaini discusses young people’s human rights situationin the Faroe Islands today, addressing youth participation issues from a cultural adultismperspective. It is argued that local cultural values and intergenerational relations withinfamilies influence the multilayered and shifting nature of ‘Faroese adultism’.Childism and adultism are also crucial concepts in the paper “Listening to Children:A Childist Analysis of Children’s Participation in Family Law Cases”. In this paper,Alminde analyzes children’s participation in family law cases in Denmark. Drawingon the concepts of childism and adultism, the analysis highlights how power structuresin the family law system privilege adult comprehension while undermining children’sperspectives. Furthermore, it is argued that “listening emergent” to children can offer a pathto deconstructing the norms and structures that undermine and exclude children’s views.Similarly, Rasmussen and Schmidt (2024), in the paper “Access to Children’s Perspec-tives?”, demonstrate how children’s perspectives emerge from and become entangled withpedagogues, ethics, spaces, materials, and discourse in Danish daycare centers. They arguethat the task is not only about gaining access to children’s perspectives but also aboutbeing preoccupied with the interactions through which children’s perspectives can emerge.This involves a critical examination of the structures and basic assumptions manifesting inthe daily life of daycare centers, as these can result in the subordination of children andtheir perspectives.In the paper “Situated Pedagogy in Danish Daycare—The Politics of Everyday Life”,Røn-Larsen and Stanek (2024) analyze the possibilities and obstacles in pedagogical prac-tices in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) concerning the development ofrelevant opportunities for participation for all children. The analysis shows that situatedpedagogy concerning the important “tiny little things” is under severe pressure. Thisis especially evident for children for whom there are concerns and where the focus hasshifted from supporting the children’s own engagement to individual assessment andinterventions. Consequently, these children’s perspectives are overlooked in pedagogicalpractice, depriving them of the development of agency and influence in their lives.In the context of Finnish ECEC, Sevón et al. (2024), in the paper “Dilemmas Relatedto Young Children’s Participation and Rights: A Discourse Analysis Study of Present andFuture Professionals Working with Children”, analyze counter-discourses regarding therealization of children’s participation through interviews with present and future educationprofessionals in Finland. The analysis shows that the activities of professionals and otherworkers in Finnish ECEC communities are partly built on conflicting assumptions aboutwhat children’s participation entails.Steensen and Helms (2024) explore students’ experiences of parent–teacher confer-ences in Denmark, drawing on Rosa’s theory of alienation and resonance. In their paper“The Right to Be a Subject of Your Own Life—A Study of Parent–Teacher Conferencesin Danish Lower Secondary Education”, they show that there is limited opportunity forstudents to express their views, thus limiting subjectification and resonance. They sub-sequently advocate for rethinking parent–teacher conferences to create opportunities forsubjectification and resonance.Turning to children in care, Olesen and Videt (2024), in their paper “Monitoring ofNorwegian Foster Homes”, interview children and youths who have experienced what theyconsider to be abusive behavior from foster parents. Their analysis shows that a commonnarrative in the youths’ accounts is one of mistrust toward social workers and monitoringSoc. Sci. 2024, 13, 426 3 of 4officers, which relates to a general distrust of the child welfare service. Consequently,young individuals are reluctant to disclose to monitoring officers how they truly experiencetheir situation in their foster homes.Children in care are also the focus of the paper “Not Everyone Can Become a RocketScientist: Decolonizing Children’s Rights in Ethnic Minority Childhoods in Norway”. Here,Ursin and Lyså (2024) reflect on contemporary discourses in Norway connected to ethnicminority childhoods and children’s rights to education and work. The analysis shows thatcontemporary Western discourses—such as individualism, self-autonomy, and childrenas human capital—paradoxically curtail the educational rights and trajectories of ethnicminority children in foster care in Norway in unforeseen and unfortunate ways.Similarly, Ingimarsdóttir and Egilson (2024), in the paper “I Just Want to Live MyLife”: Young Disabled People’s Possibilities for Achieving Participation and Wellness”,explore disabled children’s and adolescents’ possibilities for participation and identifythe practices and policies that affect their participation and how these are enacted inIceland. The study shows that young disabled people’s opportunities for participationat home, school, and in their neighborhoods are affected by complex dynamics betweenpersonal and environmental factors. Whether and how the young people’s disability-related rights are enacted depends on socio-cultural and material arrangements as well asparents’ knowledge of the welfare system.In the paper “The Punishable Child in Sweden—The Tidö Agreement from a Children’sRights Perspective”, Sundhall and Hillén (2024) analyze the political document, the TidöAgreement, focusing on its articulations of youth criminality. They find that rather thanfocusing on prevention and ensuring children’s equal opportunities to prepare them fortheir future, the Tidö Agreement emphasizes punishing children, which poses a challengefor children’s rights in Sweden.Agergaard et al. (2024) argue that despite being an important arena in children’s lives,children’s participation in sports in Scandinavia is not very well researched. In their paper“Children’s Rights to and in Sport: A Comparative Analysis of Organizational Policies in theScandinavian Countries”, they examine the organizational policies in Scandinavian sportsto develop foundational knowledge about how the range of children’s rights to and in sportsmay be supported. Through a comparative analysis of key policy documents from themajor sports confederations in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, they identify a large varietyof approaches and show that while the protection of children from presumed damagingexperiences in competitive sports has received attention in Scandinavia, discussions aboutchildren’s rights to influence their sport have received little focus.Together, the different contributions to this Special Issue not only document thatchildren’s wellbeing and participation still pose significant challenges across various con-texts, even in the Nordic (assumed child-friendly) countries, but also reveal considerablevariations in childhood concerning their societal position. Although age persists as an axisof marginalization and discrimination, it intersects with other disadvantaged positions andcategorizations. Further exploration, theorizing, and change regarding these structuraldynamics are much needed for the purpose of achieving social justice for children.Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.List of Contributions:1. Agergaard, Sine, Karin Redelius, and Åse Strandbu. 2024. Children’s Rights to and in Sport: AComparative Analysis of Organizational Policies in the Scandinavian Countries. Social Sciences13: 216. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13040216.2. Alminde, Sarah. 2024. Listening to Children: A Childist Analysis of Children’s Participation inFamily Law Cases. Social Sciences 13: 133. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13030133.3. Biswas, Tanu, Eleonora Florio, Letizia Caso, Ilaria Castelli, and Serena Iacobino. 2024. TheAdultcentrism Scale: A Potential Contributor to Advancing Children’s Participation Rights inNordic Contexts. Social Sciences 13: 238. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13050238.Soc. Sci. 2024, 13, 426 4 of 44. Gaini, Firouz. 2024. Beyond the Shadow of Adults—Youth, Adultism, and Human Rights in theContemporary Faroe Islands. Social Sciences 13: 98. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13020098.5. Ingimarsdóttir, Anna Sigrún, and Snæfrídur Thóra Egilson. 2024. “I Just Want to Live My Life”:Young Disabled People’s Possibilities for Achieving Participation and Wellness. Social Sciences13: 63. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010063.6. Olesen, Esben S. B., and Lea Louise Videt. 2024. Monitoring of Norwegian Foster Homes. SocialSciences 13: 65. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010065.7. Rasmussen, Anna Busk, and Christina Haandbæk Schmidt. 2024. Access to Children’s Perspec-tives? Social Sciences 13: 163. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13030163.8. Røn-Larsen, Maja, and Anja Hvidtfeldt Stanek. 2024. Situated Pedagogy in Danish Daycare—The Politics of Everyday Life. Social Sciences 13: 118. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13020118.9. Sevón, Eija, Marleena Mustola, and Maarit Alasuutari. 2024. Dilemmas Related to Young Chil-dren’s Participation and Rights: A Discourse Analysis Study of Present and Future ProfessionalsWorking with Children. Social Sciences 13: 27. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010027.10. Steensen, Clara Ina Severin, and Stine Helms. 2024. The Right to Be a Subject of Your OwnLife—A Study of Parent-Teacher Conferences in Danish Lower Secondary Education. SocialSciences 13: 66. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010066.11. Sundhall, Jeanette, and Sandra Hillén. 2024. The Punishable Child in Sweden—The TidöAgreement from a Children’s Rights Perspective. Social Sciences 13: 215. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13040215.12. Ursin, Marit, and Ida Marie Lyså. 2024. “Not Everyone Can Become a Rocket Scientist”:Decolonising Children’s Rights in Ethnic Minority Childhoods in Norway. Social Sciences 13:117. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13020117.Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individualauthor(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury topeople or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

Children’s Wellbeing and Children’s Rights:A Nordic Perspective

Sarah Alminde

Hanne Warming

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

Children&rsquo;s Wellbeing and Children&rsquo;s Rights&mdash;A Nordic Perspective

https://forskning.ruc.dk/files/105508759/Childrens_Wellbeing_and_Childrens_Rights_A_Nordic_Perspective.pdf

Children’s Wellbeing and Children’s Rights:A Nordic Perspective

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Roskilde Universitet

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute