West, Andrew

This article discusses children and their citizenship, in order to re-frame the debate over youth citizenship. The re-structuring of citizenship for young people, a discrimination on grounds of age, is more easily possible because the rights of those even younger are ignored. 'Youth', as a bridge between 'child' and 'adult', is seen as a construction that disguises the reality of the power relations between the two states. The rights of children's participation in terms of citizenship is explored, as is the implications for youth and citizenship.

This document is a chapter from a book titled "Resident Involvement and Community Action". The chapter looks at the involvement of younger residents in community action, and starts by examining this in the context of the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child. It goes on to look at children and young people's needs and perspectives, explores some key principles and methods of participation and looks at examples where children have participated.

This paper discusses the political participation of children. It explores three main questions: why do we need to talk about children's political participation; what sort of political participation is required, and; how can it be achieved? It does this by looking at adult visions of children and young people, the idea of citizenship which currently excludes children and young people, and asks what is actually meant by political participation and how children can be included in it.

This paper examines children's rights, sustainability, citizenship, and work using the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as the basis of discussion. Specifically, it critically analyses the three Ps that make up the convention - Protection, Provision, and Participation and looks at the inequalities that exist in how various countries address children's rights.

This article compares two examples of participatory research with and by children, based on groups in both the United Kingdom and Bangladesh. It focuses on children and young people conducting their own research, from design through to analysis and recommendations. In the UK, the focus of the children was on the experiences and issues of young people leaving the care of local authorities, while the children in Bangladesh focused their participatory research on the issues in the lives of street children.

'Participation' is very much in vogue and currently used to cover a wide range of practice. This paper critically examines how the term 'participation' is used. To avoid the term becoming meaningless, the author argues the importance of being specific about what is intended and what is being done when using the term to describe or define a particular piece of social, community, youth or development work. A list of variables by which participation can be defined are provided.

In spite of children and young people being involved in many aspects of community life, social policy in the UK often neglects their interests. This book argues that contrary to conventional adult wisdom children and young people are competent to take part in collective decision making and that it is essential that they do so. Practical examples from Save the Children's work are provided to show ways in which children and young people can be encouraged to participate and have a real say in how things are done.