"Listening to Children: rights, participation and voices of children in research and politics"
"Listening to Children: rights, participation and voices of children in research and politics"
Date: August 15 - September 16, 2022 (Online, with one on-campus week in Linköping, August 29 – September 2)
Course Directors: Professor Karin Zetterqvist Nelson and Assistant Professor Jonathan Josefsson, Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies
Today, the listening to children and youth has gained significant currency in research and politics. Child participatory methods, surveys for young people, and the collecting of narratives focusing on children´s voices are increasingly used to address societal problems and to provide legitimacy to political solutions. In the wake of a growing scholarly production in childhood studies and a global diffusion of children´s rights norms, the centering of young people´s voices have become a key strategy to guarantee participation and to improve matters of young people’s concern in various domains of society. Yet, at the same time, the emphasis on listening, participation and voice has become an integrated part of new forms of governance to control and regulate children and youth.
This course contains elements that aim to convey methodological and theoretical tools for a critical analysis of how children and young people's rights, participation and voices are used in research and politics of today. Furthermore, current research on the implementation of children's and young people's rights is addressed more specifically in relation to spheres like health care, migration, climate, education and social services. The course engages critically with how child specific methodologies, like for instance child interviews and participatory observations, are designed to capturing children's experiences and voices and to situate them in a broader historical development of children and childhood research during the twentieth century to present day. The PhD candidates are encouraged to make use of their own research projects to engage with the key elements of the course.