Larkins, Cath

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The Centre for  researching children and young people’s participation and empowerment Experience and aspirations for how we live citizenship        Children, Citizenship and Europe: Listening to marginalized children in Wales and France Cath Larkins ESA 9th Conference, Lisbon September 2009  EU Policy  Communication Towards a children’s rights strategy (2006)   NGOs doing UNCRC based lobbying     Right/need for marginalised children’s voices to be heard   Context What is children’s citizenship? Are children potential, actual or different citizens?  If we claim actual citizenship, what is that?     (e.g. Cockburn 1998; Invernizzi and Williams 2008;  Lister 2008; Moosa-Mitha 2005)  Wider lens than the UNCRC “Seeing children through the lens of their citizenship gives a very different picture of their place in the social world. Here they are recognised as young people with strengths and competencies.” (Neale 2004: 8)  What should citizenship mean?  Although no fixed content there are … a combination of the elements (or building blocks)  rights, responsibilities, status/respect, participation and membership  (Delanty 2000, Lister 2008).  This research uses these building blocks and asks… What do marginalised children think citizenship should mean? because citizenship can be an exclusionary concept Who  6 Children’s Participatory Action Research Groups  •Gypsy Travellers  •Young Carers •Disabled Children   •Looked After Group •Minority Ethnic Group •Refugees Save the Children, Barnardos and Swansea Council supported the Wales groups’ action. Numbers varied as freedom to consent and withdraw consent 55 children, aged 5-13   50% of children in Wales,  50% in France. 65% were girls and 35% were boys. Small, local French association supported by me. What we did Usually met 5 times in school, residential and play settings  •Data generation,  •Data review (coding), •Further data collection,  •Analysis  •Prioritising Through co-created activities:  •Performance •Art •Group discussions •Site Tours •Video and photo Produced action focused group reports and videos for local, national and EU lobbying What I’ve done since  Preliminary exploration of their 421 codes for Rights,  Respect,  Responsibilities, Choice and Change   Attempted to: See beyond my starting points: UNCRC   Say than citizenship for these children  is about these Rights, Responsibilities, Respect?  Looking for behaviours, experiences and processes Findings  Activities Principles and Values Emotions Contribution  Decision Making Distribution Behaviours and Experiences  Processes  What was the activity experienced or aspired to more than any other?  Citizenship Activities  Experienced or aspired by which groups? Play  Creative Leisure Sporting activities  Education  Working  (including education)  Having or being with family / friends  Construct identity/self/space  Communication  Caring  All but Young  Carers By Young  Carers All groups Experiencing Safety  Travel     Relaxing  Citizenship Principles  or Values (also activities)  Experienced or aspired to   By at least 4 groups Being nice  and kind  Helping   Decision Making  Recognition  Caring  Communicating  Respect  Not DC  No Violence or Bullying  Not DC   Non-discrimination /Equal/Same  Not LA   Politeness  Not DC or Ref  Honesty  ME, LA  Generosity  ME, DC  Acceptance  ME, LA  Reward  GT  Privacy  LA  By 1 or 2 groups By all groups Citizenship Emotions  Citizenship Emotions  Explored by certain groups  Feel secure in a home  Ref, LA  Feel secure in another setting  GT, DC  Experience affection  LA, ME, DC  Feel Happy  ME, DC  Are these preliminary differences in experience or aspiration a matter of coding, perspective or what? Citizenship Processes Reflected in all the groups   Process Contribution   Decision Making  (Principles of) Distribution Components  Giving Sharing  Being given Receiving  Obeying Rule following  (Limited) choice Freedom  Activities, Attitudes and Resources based on what: e.g kindness, respect, recognition, fairness.     Link to ideas of Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities In(ter)dependence Provision  Participation  Power Autonomy  Redistribution Status Morality Justice  Citizenship Processes Pen-portrait: Daria, 11, a Young Carer Contribution   Decision Making     Distribution Daria cares for her younger brother who has autism and her mum who is sometimes ill. She has to watch out for her brother, who often gets distressed, and she has to explain his behaviour to others.   She’d like there to be more things for her brother to do in the local area and more help for her at home when her mother is ill.  giving care  be given more help  Daria doesn’t really get to decide about anything, though her mum does try to let her choose what to do for a trip out sometimes, but this is limited by the needs of her brother, whose needs, she understands, often come first.  At school she would like more freedom to do whatever she feels like. Also at school, Daria would like more understanding:  “Other people, like teachers, don’t understand like what [caring] we do and if we need a day extra [for homework] teachers won’t give it to you. And they’re like: “Well you should have done it in like the day we give it to you.”” little choice  being constrained  Wanting freedom Recognition of her  circumstances Recognises his need How is this reflected in all groups? Citizenship Lens? Interacting Behaviours and Processes Activities  Principles and Values  Emotions Because it may help Get beyond the juxtaposition of rights - responsibilities   Better see how children contribute to the achievement  of their rights and the rights of others.  Contribution Decision Making Distribution What Next? Explore their data more Test their citizenship lens on EU policy Explore contributions expected and distributions offered  Explore principles and values active in EU citizenship  Particularly what principles they think should govern how  citizenship activities are distributed between people  

Experiences and Aspirations for how we live citizenship

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