Framing children's citizenship: exploring the space of children's claims for social justice using Nancy Fraser's conception of representation

Larkins, Cath orcid iconORCID: 0000-0003-2999-6916 (2012) Framing children's citizenship: exploring the space of children's claims for social justice using Nancy Fraser's conception of representation. In: ESA RN 04 Mid-Term Symposium, June 2012, University of Jyvaskyla.

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Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to a dynamic understanding of the space of children‟s citizenship by exploring perspectives generated by children age 5-13 in two countries in the light of Nancy Fraser‟s (2008) theory of representation. To ensure that understandings of the spaces of children‟s citizenship are guided by the views of children themselves, the paper reports findings from six Children‟s Research Groups who, in a process inspired by Freire (1973), acted and reflected on their understandings of citizenship using participatory methods that they created. The spaces they describe in their data were analysed drawing on Fraser‟s theories for reframing claims to social justice. This synthesis of empirical research and political theory suggests the need to supplement Fraser‟s theory of representation with more diffuse understandings of how influence occurs in relational spaces. The dynamic spaces of children‟s citizenship can then be conceived of as framed by a concern for social justice that children identify and deepened by exploring the way in relationships, institutions and networks influence the achievement of this claim over time, for different social groups. This approach enables children‟s citizenship to be located simultaneously in children‟s lived practices, in local and in global distributions of actions, attitudes and resources.


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