A Handbook of Children and Young People’s Participation

Perspectives from Theory and Practice

by Barry Percy-Smith and Nigel Thomas	United Kingdom
Posted on 08-01-2012	Translate this page

A Handbook of Children and Young People’s Participation brings together key thinkers and practitioners from diverse contexts across the globe to provide an authoritative overview of contemporary theory and practice around children’s participation. Promoting the participation of children and young people – in decision-making and policy development, and as active contributors to everyday family and commu- nity life – has become a central part of policy and programme initiatives in both majority and minority worlds. This book presents the most useful recent work in children’s participation as a resource for academics, students and practitioners in childhood studies, children’s rights and welfare, child and family social work, youth and community work, governance, aid and development programmes.

The book introduces key concepts and debates, and presents a rich collection of accounts of the diverse ways in which children’s participation is understood and enacted around the world, interspersed with reflective commentaries from adults and young people. It concludes with a number of substantial theoretical contributions that aim to take forward our understanding of children’s participation. The emphasis throughout the text is on learning from the complexity of chil- dren’s participation in practice to improve our theoretical understanding, and on using those theoretical insights to challenge practice, with the aim of realising children’s rights and citizenship more fully.

Barry Percy-Smith is Reader in Childhood and Participatory Practice at the SOLAR Action Research Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. He has extensive experience using participatory and ‘whole system’ action inquiry approaches in research, evaluation and development projects with chil- dren, young people, practitioners and policy makers. He is Coordinator of the Children’s Participation Learning Network, an international forum for critical debate about children and young people’s participation, and has published and presented numerous papers on the subject.

Nigel Thomas is Professor of Childhood and Youth Research at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, and Co-Director of The Centre, which exists to promote and research children and young people’s participation, inclusion and empower- ment. He has twenty years’ experience of social work practice and has taught and researched extensively in the field of children’s welfare, rights and participation.

A Handbook of Children and Young People’s Participation - 2010