Nigel Thomas

A handbook of children and young people's participation : perspectives from theory and practice

A Handbook of Children and Young Peoples Participation brings together key thinkers and practitioners from diverse contexts across the globe to provide an authoritative overview of contemporary theory and practice around children’s participation. Promoting the participation of children and young people – in decision-making and policy development, and as active contributors to everyday family and community life – has become a central part of policy and programme initiatives in both majority and minority worlds. This book presents the most useful recent work in children’s participation as a resource for academics, students and practitioners in childhood studies, children’s rights and welfare, child and family social work, youth and community work, governance, aid and development programmes. The book introduces key concepts and debates, and presents a rich collection of accounts of the diverse ways in which children’s participation is understood and enacted around the world, interspersed with reflective commentaries from adults and young people. It concludes with a number of substantial theoretical contributions that aim to take forward our understanding of children’s participation. The emphasis throughout the text is on learning from the complexity of children’s participation in practice to improve our theoretical understanding, and on using those theoretical insights to challenge practice, with the aim of realising children’s rights and citizenship more fully.

Love, rights and solidarity: Studying children’s participation using Honneth’s theory of recognition

Recent attempts to theorize children’s participation have drawn on a wide range of ideas, concepts and models from political and social theory. The aim of this article is to explore the specific usefulness of Honneth’s theory of a ‘struggle for recognition’ in thinking about this area of practice. The article identifies what is distinctive about Honneth’s theory of recognition, and how it differs from other theories of recognition. It then considers the relevance of Honneth’s conceptual framework to the social position of children, including those who may be involved in a variety of ‘participatory’ activities. It looks at how useful Honneth’s ideas are in direct engagement with young people’s praxis, drawing on ethnographic research with members of a children and young people’s forum. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of this theoretical approach and the further questions which it opens up for theories of participation and of adult–child relations more generally.

Beyond talking – children's participation in Norwegian care and protection cases

The attempt to give children an effective voice in social work processes which can have substantial impact on their lives takes different forms in countries with varying professional cultures and legal frameworks. This paper reports on a study of childrens participation in decision-making in care and protection services in Norway, which was carried out in conjunction with a project to support social work teams in enabling children to participate, using materials borrowed from England and Wales. The results showed that (a) taking an active part in decision-making did not correlate perfectly with (b) having an influence on the outcome. Cases were therefore classified as ‘participation’ or ‘non-participation’ using a combination of both the above criteria. Statistical analysis of the factors influencing childrens participation enabled the proposition of a model which appeared to explain much of the variance. The results point to the inadequacy of equating social work conversation with children with effective participation in decision-making.

Experiences of Decision-Making in Middle Childhood: The Example of Children `Looked After' By Local Authorities

This article is based on a study of childrens participation in decisions when they are looked after by local authorities in England and Wales, which included individual and group interviews with 47 children. In the course of the research, children and their carers talked about their very varied experiences of involvement in decision-making, not just in the care system but in everyday life. The article recounts some of these experiences using childrens own words, and explores some ways in which such rich and diverse material can be understood using provisional typologies.

Theories of Childhood

Let us start with some fundamental questions. What is childhood? What sort of phenomenon is it? What are children like, and how are they different from adults? Is childhood something natural, or is it a social construct? This is not the first time these questions have been asked, and it will not be the last; the fact that they are regularly asked indicates that childhood is a contested phenomenon. There are many competing views of childhood that offer different answers to these questions; competing views held by historians, by sociologists and anthropologists, by psychologists and doctors, by lawyers and teachers, by politicians and economists (in so far as they think about childhood or children), by poets and novelists, or by ordinary people — parents, other adults, and children. Some of these views are implicit in theories about other aspects of life, or in the way we talk, what we do and how we live. Others are highly explicit and theorised, whether they are to be found in academic papers about the social construction of childhood or in everyday statements such as ‘boys will be boys’ or ‘children should be seen and not heard’. In both cases they involve questions or assumptions about the nature of the difference between children and adults.

Has anything really changed? Managers' views of looked after children's participation in 1997 and 2004

A postal survey of local authority child care managers was conducted in 1997–98 as part of a study of childrens participation in decision-making in care. The same survey was repeated, with minor variations, in 2004. Nigel Thomas compares what managers said about policy and practice in their local authorities in the two studies. The results suggest that there have been significant perceived changes in the way in which local authorities seek to engage children and young people in the provision of child care services.

Conceptualisations of children's wellbeing at school: the contribution of recognition theory

A large study in Australian schools aimed to elucidate understandings of ‘wellbeing’ and of factors in school life that contribute to it. Students and teachers understood wellbeing primarily, and holistically, in terms of interpersonal relationships, in contrast to policy documents which mainly focused on ‘problem areas’ such as mental health. The study also drew on recognition theory as developed by the social philosopher Axel Honneth. Results indicate that recognition theory may be useful in understanding wellbeing in schools, and that empirical research in schools may give rise to further questions regarding theory.

Evaluating the Children's Commissioner for Wales: Report of a Participatory Research Study

This article reports the results of an evaluation of the Childrens Commissioner for Wales, which was planned and conducted with the active participation of children and young people. This article begins by giving the background to the evaluation and explaining the methods used. The findings are reported in relation to five key questions: (i) how well the Commissioners office engages with children and young people; (ii) how much children and young people know about the Commissioner; (iii) what impact the Commissioner is having on policy and services for children and young people in Wales; (iv) how effective is the individual advice and support service; (v) whether the Commissioner has lived up to expectations. The article concludes with recommendations for the future development of the Commissioners Office.

The police role in the management of child protection services

The involvement of police in child protection services has undergone substantial changes since the mid 1970s when there was a dramatic increase in emphasis placed on interagency coordination and cooperation. However, the literature on child protection, whilst addressing issues of how agencies work together in individual cases of abuse, says very little about how the services available for abused children and their families are jointly managed. This article first explores the historical development of police involvement in child protection and goes on to examine the findings of relevance to the police role of a Review of Area Child Protection Committees in Wales. Area Child Protection Committees are interagency bodies carrying the responsibility to coordinate child protection services at local level. The findings suggest that the very strong relationship between police forces and social services may be a powerful influence driving the policy emphasis in child protection to focus on investigation to the exc...

Reframing ‘well-being’ in schools: the potential of recognition

Abstract In Australia and internationally, the well-being of children and young people is a core focus of social policy, with a growing imperative to locate well-being within the sphere of education. However, the term ‘well-being’ remains ambiguous and the implementation of educational approaches to promote and improve it appears fragmented and ad hoc. In Australia, little is known about how well-being is understood and supported in schools, particularly from the perspective of students themselves. This article reports on key findings from an ambitious mixed-methods study funded by the Australian Research Council that investigated conceptualisations and practices around well-being in schools. Underpinned by theoretical interests linked to Childhood Studies and recognition theory, the research investigated policy, student and staff perspectives on well-being. The findings point to the key role of relationships, providing considerable scope for analysing the salience of Honneth’s modes of recognition for well-being in schools.