Vicky Johnson – författare

Children''s and young people’s right to participate has been increasingly acknowledged and taken up internationally, as expressed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet much of this has focused on collecting children’s voices, rather than achieving change, and has met its limits. This book provides an analysis of children’s participation in formal, collective and action research processes in six different international settings. It offers a deeper understanding of what helps and facilitates children''s and young people’s participation through research, evaluation and decision-making to go beyond voice and effect change. This analysis is set in the context of historical and current discourses of participation, the sociology of childhood, contemporary anthropology, children’s geography and international development.

Themes addressed include time and processes in children’s participation, shifting and multiple identities of children, political and cultural contexts, places and spaces children inhabit, skills and capacities of adults, accountability and power. The analysis promotes an approach to children’s participation as relational and collaborative, and will contribute to answering some of the questions facing practitioners and researchers embarking on participatory enquiry with children and young people.

This is an invaluable book for practitioners and for scholars, postgraduates in anthropology, sociology, human geography, childhood studies, development studies, social policy, social work, community work, education, youth work and those with an interest in citizenship, children’s rights and human rights. Researchers and practitioners in UN, government and non-government services will also find it applicable to engaging with children and young people.

Children''s and young people’s right to participate has been increasingly acknowledged and taken up internationally, as expressed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet much of this has focused on collecting children’s voices, rather than achieving change, and has met its limits. This book provides an analysis of children’s participation in formal, collective and action research processes in six different international settings. It offers a deeper understanding of what helps and facilitates children''s and young people’s participation through research, evaluation and decision-making to go beyond voice and effect change. This analysis is set in the context of historical and current discourses of participation, the sociology of childhood, contemporary anthropology, children’s geography and international development.

Themes addressed include time and processes in children’s participation, shifting and multiple identities of children, political and cultural contexts, places and spaces children inhabit, skills and capacities of adults, accountability and power. The analysis promotes an approach to children’s participation as relational and collaborative, and will contribute to answering some of the questions facing practitioners and researchers embarking on participatory enquiry with children and young people.

This is an invaluable book for practitioners and for scholars, postgraduates in anthropology, sociology, human geography, childhood studies, development studies, social policy, social work, community work, education, youth work and those with an interest in citizenship, children’s rights and human rights. Researchers and practitioners in UN, government and non-government services will also find it applicable to engaging with children and young people.

Young people do not necessarily view uncertainty in their lives as negative, especially those most-marginalised youth who see their 'certainty' as poverty, unemployment and environmental fragility. Youth perspectives presented in this book show how some of the most-marginalised youth seek 'positive uncertainty' by escape from traditional practices and social bonds in families and communities, through migration or seeking innovative and alternative ways to meet peer, adult and societal expectations.

The authors explore how youth see uncertainty in their lives as they grow up in different parts of the world, and how they respond and take action in terms of `positive uncertainty'. When young people don't know what is going to happen in their lives and contexts, they often embrace it as positive and use their creativity to take up new opportunities and futures. Many of the poorest or most-marginalised young women and men often need to move away from home and migrate, but still want to meet the expectations of others, stay connected and be accepted back into their families and communities on their return.

The chapters describe learning from the creativity of young men and women in Ethiopia and Nepal, and youth who are genderfluid in Nepal, regarding uncertainty and discusses the implications for policy and practice, and changing societies. This type of youth-centred research can help to tell the stories of the most-marginalised and support young people's strategies in the face of both uncertainty and insecurity in conflict situations, fragile environments and communities in the global South.