Contemporary understandings of inter-generational relations assume that the balance of power has shifted from adults towards children in recent years. The rise of children’s rights, the trend towards more child-centred pedagogies and practices within schools and the incorporation of children within a global free market as consumers have all been interpreted as the loss of adult power and the consequent growth of kid power.
This book critically examines these ideas and reframes the zero-sum conceptions of power implicit within such assumptions. It draws on Lukes’ three dimensions of power and Foucault’s theory of power and knowledge in advancing the view that kid power is inter-generational, multi-dimensional and distributed variably across the child population. The book illustrates this theory through children’s political activism, their digital power and the varied roles they play within their families and communities. The book also offers a brief re-examination of kid power within the current context of Covid-19.
Table of Content
Acknowledgements; Introduction; Section 1: The ‘Problem’ of Kid Power; 1. Power and Children; 2. Global Rights and Kid Power; 3. Child- Centredness, Schooling and Kid Power; 4. The Loss of Adult Power?; Section 2: Reconstructing Kid Power; 5. Family, Generation and Mediation; 6. The Internet, Social Media and Kid Power; 7. Children’s Community Action; 8. The Power of Children’s Participation and Involvement in Research; Conclusion: A Model for Kid Power – Implications and Thinking Forward; Postscript: Covid-19; References; Index.
About the author
Clara Rübner Jørgensen is a social anthropologist specializing in the social and cultural contexts of childhood and education.
Michael Wyness is a sociologist with interests in childhood, schooling and family.
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