Session Information
Paper Session
Contribution
In reference to the sociology of childhood, children have been viewed more and more as active actors, builders of their own lives and worlds. Childhood no longer needs to be imagined and romanticised, researchers are more and more interested in the point of view of children on various phenomena in social life (James, Jenkins & Prout 1999; Holloway & Valentine 2000; Mayall 2003). Informed by meaningful attention to culture and social structure, these approaches focus closely on the ways in which children negotiate the processes of growing older, being educated and participating in social institutions. Over the last decade children’s and young people’s participation has become a prominent issue in the childhood studies, more and more theoretical and methodological work is published on the theme, and the rhetoric of participation has become prominent within policy and practice pertaining to children and young people (Tisdall & Davis 2004, 2006; Hinton, Tisdall, Gallagher & Elsley, 2008; Thomas & Percy-Smith 2010). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989, Article 12) states that a child’s views must be considered and taken into account in all matters affecting the child, subject to the child’s age and maturity. My paper is informed by these theoretical, methodological, and political insights, and the findings underpinning the paper are derived from the letter-data where children and young people write letters to the president of Finland. Children and young people have written nearly eight thousand letters to the president, Tarja Halonen, over the past eight years. One of the central concerns for the children, as well as for adults, is the everyday life. Solvency, unemployment and poverty raise social political statements and the president does not lack in advisers when it comes to these subjects. She is asked to quickly solve the problems stated in the letters. Elderly care, schooling matters, the worries about the environment, nature and animals and the insecurity and anxiety caused by wars are other often recurring themes in the letters. The children’s letters not only open new windows to Finnish society and to the Finnish way of life, but also to questions of global politics. And perhaps more importantly, the writing process tests and helps better understand the idea of democracy as a means to influence policy, to express views and to make them heard (see Salo 2006). Politics appears to be framed in adult terms (Buckingham 2000, 175) though children and young people seem to have political concern. How participation then would be conceptualised in the context of children’s and young people’s letter-writing? How can politics and children be discussed and can politics be taken up when the question is about children? These are the questions this paper is concerned about.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Buckingham, D. 2000. After the Death of Childhood. Growing up in the age of electronic media. Cambridge: Polity. Hinton, R., Tisdall, E.K.M., Gallagher, M. & Elsley, S. 2008. Children’s and Young People’s Participation in Public Decision-Making. Introduction. International Journal of Children’s Rights 16 (2008) 281–284. Holloway, S. & Valentine, G. 2000. Children’s geographies. London: Routledge. James, A., Jenkins, C. & Prout, A. 1999. Theorizing Childhood. Cambridge: Polity. Mayall, B. 2003. Towards a sociology of childhood: Thinking from children’s lives. Buckingham: Open University Press. Salo, U.-M. 2006. Haluaisin tavata teidän Ylhäisyyden. Lasten kirjeitä presidentille. Helsinki: WSOY. [I’d Like to Meet Your Excellency. Children’s Letters to the President of Finland] Thomas, N. & Percy-Smith, B. (Eds.) 2010. Handbook of Children and Young People’s Participation. Perspectives from Theory and Practice. London: Routledege. Tisdall, K. & Davis, J. 2004. Making a difference? Bringing children’s and young people’s views into policy-maiking. Children & Society 18, 131–142. Tisdall, K & Davis, J. 2006. Children, young people and social inclusion. Malcolm Hill. Urban, G. 2001. Metaculture. How culture moves through the world. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
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