Abstract
This chapter considers the role played by adult trust in relation to children’s democratic participation. Following an analysis of how discourses of trust in relation to children construct the participating child in different spaces of participation we find a high degree of contingency attends on how trust and distrust are mobilised by adult in relation to children when it comes to including children in decision-making processes. From a participatory perspective we find that where participatory mechanisms are realised through formalised system processes of confidence this can serve in children’s favour, but that where adults retain the warrant to override children’s views this is often articulated through questions of interpersonal trust and distrust. Finally, we argue that adults deploy or withhold interpersonal trust in relation to children as a class of person in ways which are akin to early Parsonian formulations of trust within familiar situations which suggests children as a category are held in a web of what could be characterised as ‘pre-modern’ relations to adults as a class.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Adorno, T. W. (1998) ‘The meaning of working through the past’, Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 89–104.
Alderson, P. (2008) Young Children’s Rights: Exploring Beliefs, Principles and Practice, 2nd edition, London: Jessica Kingsley.
Archard, D. (1993) Children Rights and Childhood, London: Routledge.
Badham, B. (2004) ‘Participation — for a change: Disabled young people lead the way’, Children and Society, 18: 143–54.
Barnes, M. & P. Cotterell (2012) Critical Perspectives on User Involvement, Bristol: Policy Press.
Beresford, P. & S. Croft (1993) Citizen Involvement: A Practical Guide for Change, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Beresford, P. (2000) ‘Service users’ knowledges and social work theory: Conflict or collaboration?’, British Journal of Social Work, 30: 489–503.
Bourdieu, P. (1984) Die feinen Untershiede: kritik der gesellschaftlichen Urteilskraft, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
Bowles, S. & H. Gintis (1987) Democracy and Capitalism: Property, Community and the Contradictions of Modern Social Thought, New York: Basic Books.
Brown, K. (2006) ‘Participation and young people involved in prostitution’, Child Abuse Review, 15: 294–312.
Bühler-Niederberger, D. & H. Sünker (2008) ‘Theorie und Geschichte der Kindheit und des Kinderlebens’ in H. Suenker and T. Swiderek (eds) Lebensalter und Soziale Arbeit: Kindheit: Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Hohengehren, pp. 5–46.
Bühler-Niederberger, D. & H. Sünker (2009) ‘Interests in and responsibility for children and their life-worlds’ in J. Qvortrup, W. Corsaro & M. Honig (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Childhood Studies, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 394–407.
Bundesministerium für Familia und Jugend (1990) Kinder- und Jugendhilfegesetz, 1990.
Burke, T. (2010) Anyone Listening? Evidence of Children and Young People’s Participation in England, London: Children’s Rights Alliance for England and National Children’s Bureau.
Burman, E. & J. Stacey (2010) ‘The child and childhood in feminist theory’, Feminist Theory, 11: 227–40.
Burman, E. (1996) ‘Local, global or globalized? Child development and international child rights legislation’, Childhood, 3: 45–66.
Cashmore, J. (2002) ‘Promoting the participation of children and young people in care’, Child Abuse and Neglect, 26: 837–47.
Chan, T. W. & M. Clayton (2006) ‘Should the voting age be lowered to sixteen? Normative and empirical considerations’, Political Studies, 54: 533–58.
Coley, M. (2007) ‘Children’s voices in access and custody decisions: The need to reconceptualise rights and effect transformative change’, Appeal: Review of Current Law and Law Reform, 12: 48–72.
Cotmore, R. (2004) ‘Organisational competence: The study of a school council in action’, Children and Society, 18: 53–65.
de Montigny, G. (1998) ‘In the company of strangers: Being a child in care’ in I. Hutchby & J. Moran-Ellis (eds) Children and Social Competence: Arenas of Action, London: Falmer.
Department of Health (1989) Children Act, 1989, London: HMSO.
di Luzio, G. (2006) ‘A sociological concept of client trust’, Current Sociology, 54(4): 549–64.
Electoral Commission (2004) Age of Electoral Majority: Report and Recommendations, London: Electoral Commission.
Elsely, (2004) ‘Children’s experiences of public space’, Children and Society, 18: 155–64.
Endress, M. (2002) Vertrauen, Bielefeld: Transcript.
Eriksson, M. (2008) ‘Participation in family law proceedings for children whose father is violent to their mother’, Childhood, 15(2): 259–75.
Eriksson, M. (2011) ‘Contact, shared parenting, and violence: Children as witnesses of domestic violence in Sweden’, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 25(2): 165–83.
Fischer, F. (2009) Democracy and Expertise: Reorienting Policy Inquiry, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gambetta, D. (2000) ‘Can we trust trust?’ in D. Gambetta (ed) Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, Electronic edition, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, pp. 213–37, www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/papers/gam-betta213–237.pdf, date accessed 10 August 2011.
Grover, S. C. (2010) Young People’s Human Rights and the Politics of Voting Age, London: Springer.
Hart, D. & R. Atkins (2011) ‘American sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds are ready to vote’, ANNALS, AAPPS, 633: 201–22.
Hill, M., J. Davis, A. Prout & K. Tisdall (2004) ‘Moving the participation agenda forward’, Children and Society, 18: 77–96.
Holland, S. (2001) ‘Representing children in child protection assessments’, Childhood, 8(3): 322–39.
Hutchby, I. & J. Moran-Ellis (1998a) (eds) Children and Social Competence: Arenas of Action, London: Falmer.
Hutchby, I. & J. Moran-Ellis (1998b) ‘Situating children’s social competence’ in I. Hutchby & J. Moran-Ellis (eds) Children and Social Competence: Arenas of Action, London: Falmer, pp. 8–28.
Irwin, A. (1995) Citizen Science: A Study of People, Expertise and Sustainable Development, London: Routledge.
James, A. & A. James (1999) ‘Pump up the volume: Listening to children in separation and divorce’, Childhood, 6: 189–206.
James, A. & A. Prout (1990) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood, London: Taylor Francis.
James, A., C. Jenks & A. Prout (1998) Theorizing Childhood, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Javala, J. (2003) ‘From norms to trust: The Luhmannian connections between trust and social system’, European Journal of Social Theory, 6: 173–90.
Kant, I. (1968) ‘Über Pädagogik’, Werke Band 10, Darmstadt: WBG, pp. 693–761.
Kerr, M., H. Stattin & K. Trost (1999) ‘To know you is to trust you: Parents’ trust rooted in child disclosure of information’, Journal of Adolescence, 22: 737–52.
Khodyakov, D. (2007) ‘Trust as a process: A three-dimensional approach’, Sociology, 4(1): 115–32.
Kocka, J. (1990a) Weder Stand noch Klasse: Unterschichten um1800, Bonn: Dietz.
Kocka, J. (1990b) Arbeitsverhältnisse und Arbeiterexistenzen, Grundlagen der Klassenbildung im 19 Jahrhundert, Bonn: Dietz.
Lansdown, G (1995) ‘Children’s rights to participation and protection: A critique’ in C. Cloke and M. Davies (eds) Participation and Empowerment in Child Protection, Chichester, England: Wiley, pp. 19–38.
Lau, J. C. (2012) ‘Two arguments for child enfranchisement’, Political Studies, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467–9248.2011.00940.x, date accessed 27 March 2012.
Lee, N (1999) ‘The challenge of childhood: Distributions of childhood’s ambiguity in adult institutions’, Childhood, 6: 455–74.
Luhmann, N. (1995) Social Systems, Standford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Luhmann, N. (2000) ‘Familiarity, confidence, trust: Problems and alternatives’ in D. Gambetta (ed.) Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, Electronic edition, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, pp. 94–107, www.socio-logy.ox.ac.uk/papers/luhmann94-107.pdf, date accessed 10 August 2011.
Luke, C. (1989) Pedagogy, Printing and Protestantism: The Discourse on Childhood, New York: State University of New York Press.
Marx, K. (1973) Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (Rough Draft), London: Penguin Books.
Mayall, B. (1994) ‘Children in action in home and school’ in B. Mayall (ed.) Children’s Childhoods Observed and Experienced, London: Falmer Press, pp. 114–27.
Moran-Ellis, J. (2010) ‘Reflections on the sociology of childhood in the UK’, Current Sociology, 58(2): 186–205.
Moran-Ellis, J. & H. Sünker (2008) ‘Giving children a voice: Childhood, power and culture’ in J. Houtsonen & A. Antikainen (ed.) Symbolic Power in Cultural Contexts: Uncovering Social Reality, Rotterdam: Sense, pp. 67–83.
Nicklett, E. J. & B. E. Perron (2010) ‘Laws and policies to support the wellbeing of children: An international comparative analysis’, International Journal of Social Welfare, 19: 3–7.
Przeworski, A. (2009) ‘Conquered or granted?: A history of suffrage extensions’, British Journal of Political Science, 39: 291–321.
Smith, C. (2001) ‘Trust and confidence: Possibilities for social work in “high modernity”’, British Journal of Social Work, 31: 287–305.
Smith, C. (2004) ‘Trust and confidence: Making the moral case for social work’, Social Work and Social Science Review, 11(3): 5–15.
Steinmetz, G. (1993) Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Such, E. & R. Walker (2004) ‘Being responsible and responsible beings: Children’s understandings of responsibility’, Children and Society, 18: 231–42.
Sünker, H. (2009) ‘Democratic education — Educating for democracy’ in E. Ropo and T. Autio (eds) International Conversations on Curriculum Studies: Subject, Society and Curriculum, Rotterdam: Sense, pp. 89–108.
Svanberg, J. & C. Street (2003) ‘Where next? New directions in in-patient mental health services for young people’, Report 2: Issues Emerging: Views from Young People, Parents And Staff, London: Young Minds.
Swiderek, T. (1999) ‘The relevance of a children’s policy and participation of young people in decision making in Germany — Municipal and local forms and models of co-determination’, Social Work in Europe, 6(3): 14–22.
Thomas, N. & C. O’Kane (1998) ‘When children’s wishes and feeling clash with their “best interests”’, The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 6: 137–54.
Thomas, N. & C. O’Kane (1999a) ‘Children’s participation in reviews and planning meetings when they are looked after in middle childhood’, Child and Family Social Work, 4: 221–30.
Thomas, N. & C. O’Kane (1999b) ‘Experiences of decision-making in middle childhood: The example of children “looked after” by local authorities’, Childhood, 6(3): 369–87.
Thornberg, R. & H. Elvstrand (2012) ‘Children’s experiences of democracy, participation and trust in school’, International Journal of Educational Research, DOI.
United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child A/RES/44/25 http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/44/a44r025.htm, date accessed 1 April 2012.
van Nijnatten, C. & E. Jongen (2011) ‘Professional conversations in divorce-related child welfare inquiries’, Childhood, 18: 540–55.
Vis, S. A., A. Holtan & N. Thomas (2012) ‘Obstacles for child participation in care and protection cases — Why Norwegian social workers find it difficult’, Child Abuse Review, 21: 7–23.
Vis, S. A., A. Strandbu, A. Holtan & N. Thomas (2011) ‘Participation and health — Research review of child participation in planning and decision-making’, Child and Family Social Work, 16: 325–35.
Wagner, M., D. Johann & S. Krtizinger (2012) ‘Voting at 15: Turnout and the quality of vote choice’, Electoral Studies, DOI 10.10.16/j.electstud.2012.01.007, date accessed 27 March 2012.
Wall, J. (2012) ‘Can democracy represent children? Towards a politics of difference’, Childhood, 19: 86–100.
Wattam, C., J. A. Hughes & H. Blagg (1989) Child Sexual Abuse: Listening, Hearing and Validating the Experiences of Children, London: Wiley.
Woodhead, M. (1990) ‘Psychology and the cultural construction of children’s needs’ in A. James & A. Prout (1990) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood, London: Falmer.
Worrall-Davies, A. (2008) ‘Barriers and facilitators to children’s and young people’s views affecting CAMHS planning and delivery’, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 13(1): 16–18.
Wyness, M. (2003) ‘Children’s spaces and interests: Constructing an agenda for student voices’, Children’s Geographies, 1(2): 223–39.
Wyness, M. (2005) ‘Regulating participation: The possibilities and limits of children and young people’s councils’, Journal of Social Science, 9: 7–18.
Wynne, B. (1992) ‘Misunderstood misunderstanding: Social identities and public uptake of science’, Public Understanding of Science, 1: 281–304.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Jo Moran-Ellis and Heinz Sünker
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Moran-Ellis, J., Sünker, H. (2013). Adult Trust and Children’s Democratic Participation. In: Warming, H. (eds) Participation, Citizenship and Trust in Children’s Lives. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137295781_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137295781_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33766-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-29578-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)