Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Kirrily Pells
(UCL Institute of Education)
Vicky Johnson (University of the Highlands and Islands)
- Location:
- Room 8 (Examination Schools)
- Start time:
- 13 September, 2016 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
The panel explores interconnections between poverty, inequality, fragile environments, intergenerational relationships and actions of children and youth. Analysis draws on research and practice on collaborations, re-workings or resistance to formal or informal processes of development and rights.
Long Abstract:
This panel seeks to understand how politics and the political shape the everyday lives of children and youth living in situations of poverty, inequality and insecurity. Going beyond global/local dichotomies the panel invites papers exploring the myriad ways in which children and young people's lives are shaped by the interconnections between structural inequality, fragile environments, intergenerational relationships and the actions of children and young people in navigating these rapidly changing and uncertain terrains. In particular, we welcome analysis from research and practice on children and young people's collaborations, re-workings or resistance to formal or informal discourses and processes of development and rights, and the ways in which examining the complexities of children's lives can better inform theory and practice.
Strengthening dialogue between different disciplinary perspectives (such as politics, development studies, the sociology of childhood and youth and children's geographies) the panel aims to bring new theoretical, empirical and practical insights to challenge the marginalization of children and young people both within societies and mainstream development praxis. To this end we welcome papers based on either research and/or reflections on practice, including but not limited to studies with children and youth living in poverty, conflict or post-conflict contexts, as well as those migrating within and between borders and street-connected children and young people.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
The paper unsettles a number of taken-for-granted categories that are widely used in research relating to children and youth in the global South/development discourses, including age, family, adolescences, transitions to adulthood, education/learning, and children's agency/voice.
Paper long abstract:
In this presentation, I reflect on experiences of working on Young Lives, an interdisciplinary international study following children over 15 years, in Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh & Telengana, India, Peru and Vietnam,(www.younglives.org.uk), to explore what I have termed 'smoke and mirrors'[1] in childhood and youth research. Through this metaphor, I will explore some taken-for-granted yet categories that are used globally, generated by institutions in the Global North, in research, policy and practice: (a) notions of age (birth date, numerical age); (b) family (structure); (c) adolescence/transitions to adulthood; (d) education, work and learning/child development (e) children's agency/ 'voice'. The assumptions underpinning these are the 'smoke' in the title; the 'mirrors' are the ways in which universal assumptions underpinning these concepts are reflected and refracted back to the Global North. The presentation concludes by attempting to explore possibilities for moving beyond binary divisions, by looking for possibilities for the South to be generative and to transfer ideas and values to the North. This involves (a) recognition of the limits of global North theorizations and valuing of local understandings and categories, and (b) exploring lines of enquiry that transgress geographical boundaries - relating to poverty, inequality, migration, displacement, globalization, and sustainable development (relating to the SDGs and beyond).
[1] According to Wikipedia: 'Smoke and mirrors is a metaphor for a deceptive, fraudulent or insubstantial explanation or description'.
Paper short abstract:
In the post Nirbhaya episode figure of ‘criminal child’ pervades the public psyche of mainstream Indian society. Various legislative reformulations have followed. Such state efforts have been termed ‘step back in time’ by UNICEF India. Its meaning in terms of politics of childhood remains important.
Paper long abstract:
Increasing number of reported incidents of crime perpetrated by legal minors within the Indian juvenile justice system draws attention in recent times. Such official statistics paired with incidents like the New Delhi Nirbhaya episode of gang rape and murder of a young woman in 2012 has brought forth the figure of the 'criminal child' in public imagination. Involvement of a legal minor as a perpetrator in this incident led to an unforseen public outcry in India towards gender justice and stricter legal provisions. One such legal formulation includes the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014 which proposes that persons above the age of 16 are liable to be tried at adult courts given the seriousness of crime. UNICEF India has promptly critiqued this formulation as a 'step back in time' in keeping with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This paper attempts to interrogate connotation of the 'criminal child' within the discourse of childhood especially in terms of constructions of childhood/deviance. An engagement with reported cases of sexual offences within the Indian juvenile justice system brings forth larger dynamics of Indian society within the domain of childhood. In this, social profile of the 'criminal child' from marginal locations of society establishes him as deviant. His deviance is pathologised to be a social condition related to poverty and lack of education. This puts in perspective a relation of the 'criminal child' with the politics of children and young people in development.
Paper short abstract:
Based on an analysis of survey data on young people's media use, demographic factors, trust in political information on traditional and social media, this empirical study seeks to fully understand the relationship between media use and young people's political trust in China
Paper long abstract:
A substantial number of studies suggest that the media have a significant influence on people's trust in institutions and organizations. Most prior studies have investigated the effect of traditional media on political trust and now many scholars pay attention to social media. As the largest Internet user in the world, China has changed hugely in every aspect since the late 1970s. Social media now plays a crucial role in spreading news and communication between the government and citizens. A very limited number of empirical studies have been conducted on the comparison of the effects of traditional media and social media on citizens' political trust as well as the relationship between social media use and trust in China, which has attracted growing scholarly attention in the West.
By doing so, an online survey will be conducted before this June by a survey company based in China. The questionnaire consists of 39 questions and a total of 2000 young individuals participate in it. This study aims to examine young people's media use, their demographic factors such as gender, education, and occupation, their trust in political information on traditional and social media, as well as their trust in government. Based on an analysis of survey data on young adults' media use, this empirical study seeks to fully understand the different impact of traditional and social media on the young people's political trust in China.
Paper short abstract:
The paper analyses the roles performed by children in extractive industries controlled by non-state armed groups in Colombia. It discusses limited academic interpretations of ‘child soldiering’ and ‘child labour’ and its implications in terms of human rights violations and policy interventions.
Paper long abstract:
The exploitation of natural resources has become an important financial lifeline for non-state armed groups (NSAG) in current internal conflicts. Children are currently performing crucial roles as soldiers and miners alongside domestic tasks or involvement in illegal economies. The widespread effect of stereotyping the representation of children used to participate in hostilities and labour, as only being manipulated subjects, has oversimplified the reality of child participation in war and labour. This prevalent view in the studies of 'child soldiering' does not allow a broader understanding of the multiple agencies and roles that children perform in wartime. Although a body of scholars has increasingly paid attention to the importance of recognising and studying the agency of and capacity for choice by children to participate in armed conflicts, more analysis is needed in order to understand the (re)configuration and negotiation of multiple non-western 'childhoods' in the midst of protracted conflicts. Taking Colombia as a case study, I discuss the limited academic interpretation of 'child soldiering' and its implications in terms of human rights violations and policy interventions. I argue that that the analytical boxes that have defined child labour and the use of children for war do not allow for a wider comprehension of the multiple roles performed by children in current conflicts as well as their capacities of choice and outline a theoretical framework that can help address this gap in theorising and practice.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I explore teenage pregnancy as a means to revoke binaries such as childhood and adulthood, or tradition and modernity. By engaging with young people's attitudes toward their own identity, I suggest that they both resist and conform by available norms pertaining pregnancy.
Paper long abstract:
Macleod (2003, 426) suggests: 'the pregnant teenager is thus adult, but not adult, child, but not child, an undecidable'. Within this perspective, a pregnancy during teenage years corresponds to a breach of normative identity as sex and pregnancy are associated with adulthood. This is also situated at the crossroad between traditional approaches that value and encourage motherhood, and modern approaches, that consider education and employment as necessary pathways to adulthood.
In this paper I explore teenage pregnancy as a means to revoke binaries such as childhood and adulthood, or tradition and modernity. By engaging with young people's attitudes toward their own identity, I suggest that individuals navigate different regulatory frameworks in order to make sense of their lives, and the context they live in. This does not mean that identities are 'free-floating' (Humphreys, 2013), as they are constrained by social structures. By conjoining their actions within different normativities, young people render themselves intelligible via various discursive formations. By so doing, young mothers exert their own agency and suggest identities that both resist and conform by the myriads of regulatory frameworks that are available to them. In line with Aboim (2009), I depict a degree of complicity between the world of pre-colonial tradition, transposing into the modern world, but also one that is oriented by and to Western standards in both family life and gender relations. Change and continuity, in other words, coexist making it hard for one single normative hegemony to prevail over different regulatory sets.
Paper short abstract:
Young Lives data is used to explore the causes of child marriage and early child bearing in India. An ecological life-course framework helps to demonstrate the role of gendered disadvantages and the need for a layered strategy to tackle them.
Paper long abstract:
Prevalence rates of child marriage and early childbearing have been declining across India over the past two decades, but volumes remain extraordinarily high. The paper uses data collected from 3,000 children over 15 years in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana by Young Lives, a longitudinal study of childhood poverty, to provide an evidence base from which to strengthen policy and programming in this area.
An ecological life-course framework is used to explore the causes of child marriage and early childbearing and the factors which help to prevent them. Findings show that: girls who stay in school for longer marry later, but gender gaps in enrolment widen through adolescence; where resources are limited, gendered social risks become more acute and parents are forced to make decisions which disadvantage girls; aspirations matter but reflect wider realities; and social norms that encourage early child bearing are compounded by inequitable access to health and education services.
The paper discusses that, whilst child marriage and early childbearing are driven by entrenched patriarchal norms regarding the role and value of girls (and women) in society, social norms are not the sole problem and policies targeting them will not be the sole solution. Structural factors are critical, as poverty and social disadvantage constrain girls' opportunities and exacerbate the risks they face, forcing individuals and families to maintain normative practices. An ecological life-course framework helps to demonstrate the need for a layered strategy to tackle the gendered disadvantages which drive child marriage and early childbearing.
Paper short abstract:
This research explores the subjective experiences of teenage pregnancy in the city of Monterrey, Mexico. It uses an intersectionality approach, understood as the interrelationship of multiple social divisions of oppression, to look at how they shape such diverse identities and lived experiences.
Paper long abstract:
In the past decades, there has been a concern about the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Mexico, which has been defined as a problem that must be wiped out because it 'hinders development'. My research tried to move away from that negative connotation and aimed to listen to the teenage mothers instead.
This research explores the subjective experiences of teenage pregnancy in the city of Monterrey, Mexico. It uses an intersectionality approach, understood as the interrelationship of multiple social divisions of oppression, to look at how they shape such diverse identities and lived experiences.
My study was based on fifteen in-depth semi-structured interviews held in the summer of 2014, with teenagers who had experienced or were currently experiencing a pregnancy. Not only were they being stigmatized because of their age and gender, but class and race also played a major role. Nonetheless, their resilient points of view contrast with the dominant discourse that a teenage pregnancy is an event that will forever ruin their lives.
The vast diversity of teenage pregnancy experiences, even among the group of people who participated in this research, can further guide us to fully unpack and understand all of the complexities surrounding this phenomenon when designing and implementing development programs or policies.
Paper short abstract:
This paper draws on a UNICEF study concerning violence against children in Tanzania to discuss some of the socio-cultural and structural factors at play that perpetuate violence and inhibit the development of protective environments played out in the politics of children’s everyday lives.
Paper long abstract:
In 2009, UNICEF commissioned an extensive study of violence against children in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. The study revealed alarmingly high levels of physical emotional and sexual violence against children and identified socio-cultural factors as drivers of violence. It is widely accepted that childhood is culturally variable, yet this poses significant challenges to those seeking to reduce violence in children's lives, in particular when framed by universal agenda such as children's rights. This paper is based on a recently completed follow up study to understand better the dynamics of these socio-cultural drivers of violence. The paper focuses on the way in which cultural factors both prevent change whilst at the same time marginalize children's voices in their everyday lives and interactions with adults. The paper will highlight the central role that constructions of childhood, patriarchy and community play in reinforcing the social and structural violence that gives rise to children living in varying states of existential insecurity as well as inherent conservatism in socio-cultural practices that inhibits change. The paper will discuss the strengths and limitations of using a community action inquiry approach and participatory research with children to provide a basis for learning for change through participatory appraisal, dialogue and critical reflection about socio- cultural attitudes and practices concerning the way children are treated. In particular the paper will use powerful children's voices to capture some of the complexities at play as they navigate oppressive inter-generational, socio-cultural and structural contexts of their everyday lives.
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses how unemployed and self-employed young men and women in a small town in Zimbabwe navigate the local politics and sometimes violent political actors in the local economy, in pursuit of economic opportunities. It shows their agency in a repressive political environment.
Paper long abstract:
Based on a qualitative study in a small town of Zimbabwe, this paper discusses how young people navigate the sometimes violent politics in the local economy. Here, party affiliated actors shape access to economic opportunities, and influence the viability of young people's economic activities. Young people are having to navigate these politics of the local economy, and the potentially violent political actors. In this study, focus groups and individual interviews were carried out with unemployed youth and young entrepreneurs, including those affiliated with different parties. The paper describes how young people agency is informed by the social networks and relationships in which they are embedded, and how linkages to political parties figure among those relationships. The paper argues that the local (informal) economy is more than a space where young people can earn an income. It is a site for social practice, where young people interact with peers and construct their identities in interaction with their social context, and where they may also learn how to navigate the local politics, in order to secure economic opportunities.
Paper short abstract:
In 2014 the Colombian government passed an Educational Law establishing a peace core subject in schools. This paper analyzes strategies in 5 schools serving children in contexts of poverty and violence. I explore the extent to which these pedagogical programs develop civic engagement.
Paper long abstract:
2012 marked the beginning of peace dialogues with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to end the 60-year armed conflict. A key effort came when the Ministry of Education passed the 1732 Law that mandates a peace core subject at every school level.
The Law suggests different notions of peace that range from a narrow understanding of peace as the absence of physical violence (i.e. negative peace) to a broader view of peace as social justice (i.e. positive peace). I apply these global conceptualizations of peace to explore the connections between peace, democracy, citizenship and education and engage in a critical examination of the theory and practice of peace education in Colombia. I explore how local understandings of peace influence peace education and analyze different approaches to peace education in practice in schools that have been identified as 'exemplary' and serve populations in contexts of poverty and violence. I propose an alternative notion of imperfect peace as an analytical tool to examine these efforts.
I conclude that current programs tend to reinforce the notion of negative peace or the absence of direct violence. In addition the research identifies a focus on developing people individually as personally responsible citizens. There is less focus on broader notions of peace that aim to develop active citizenship in the pursuit of social justice. I propose that the notion of imperfect peace best captures the inherent tensions in delivering peace education in practice.
Paper short abstract:
The paper explores the role of children and young people in development through “Education for All”. It analyses the negotiations of children and youth concerning education policy, their family’s need to secure a livelihood as pastoralists in southern Ethiopia and their own visions of the future.
Paper long abstract:
This paper analyses how the international policy "Education for All" affects childrens' and young peoples' lives in southern Ethiopia. As the needs of subsistence oriented (agro-)pastoralism are hardly compatible with the national school system, conflicts between families and state agencies arise, in which children and young people are at the centre. As children and young people are crucial to the maintenance and reproduction of society, most Hamar families want to educate their children in their traditional way and thus send only one son to government school. In contrast to this, the Ethiopian government requires school attendance for all children in the name of promoting national development. Amidst this conflict of interest, children and young people are social actors who have their own visions of development, education and their future. Thus, students from (agro-)pastoral families have to negotiate diverging expectations of relatives, the government requests and their own aims. With the argument that going to school is a human right, teenagers sometimes run away from their families and enter boarding school. However, school life in town also comes along with many challenges and multiple dilemmas that will be discussed in my paper.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in South Omo Zone, particularly in Hamar Woreda, this paper explores the role of young people as "makers and breakers" (Honwana, de Boeck 2005) of development strategies. By doing so, it highlights the perspectives and actions of those mostly affected by development through education efforts, namely the students.