IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v112y2020ics0190740919304839.html

Towards a more holistic understanding of child participation: Foregrounding the experiences of children in Ghana and Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Twum-Danso Imoh, Afua
  • Okyere, Samuel

Abstract

Concerns about the absence of children’s voices from matters affecting their lives and their societies have informed the emergence, construction and hegemony of ‘child participation as voice’ in global children’s rights debates, policies and practices since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989. While this voice-oriented participation construct has some merit, this paper argues that it is also limiting and unrepresentative of the diverse ways in which children participate or seek representation and inclusion in different political, social and economic contexts. The paper draws on findings from research studies in Nigeria and Ghana to buttress this argument and concludes with a call to go beyond the participation-as-voice orthodoxy and instead, move towards participatory practices which are better aligned with the meanings children themselves attach to their everyday lives and to the key personal and social relationships that they value.

Suggested Citation

  • Twum-Danso Imoh, Afua & Okyere, Samuel, 2020. "Towards a more holistic understanding of child participation: Foregrounding the experiences of children in Ghana and Nigeria," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:112:y:2020:i:c:s0190740919304839
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104927
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740919304839
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104927?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerison Lansdown, 2001. "Promoting Children's Participation in Democratic Decision-Making," Papers innins01/9, Innocenti Insights.
    2. Holzscheiter, Anna & Josefsson, Jonathan & Sandin, Bengt, 2019. "Child rights governance: An introduction," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(3), pages 271-288.
    3. Per Miljeteig, 2000. "Creating partnerships with working children and youth," The Social Policy and Labor Discussion Paper Series 27007, The World Bank.
    4. Roger A. Hart, 1992. "Children's Participation: From tokenism to citizenship," Papers inness92/6, Innocenti Essay.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Barau, Aliyu Salisu & Abubakar, Ismaila Rimi & Kafi, Kamil Muhammad & Olugbodi, Kemi Hamdat & Abubakar, Jibrin Ibrahim, 2023. "Dynamics of negotiated use of public open spaces between children and adults in an African city," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gazit, Matan & Perry-Hazan, Lotem, 2020. "Disadvantaged youth’s participation in collective decision making," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    2. Duramy, Benedetta Faedi & Gal, Tali, 2020. "Understanding and implementing child participation: Lessons from the Global South," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    3. Nir, Tal & Perry-Hazan, Lotem, 2016. "The framed right to participate in municipal youth councils and its educational impact," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 174-183.
    4. Deepa Joshi & Michelle Kooy & Vincent den Ouden, 2016. "Development for Children, or Children for Development? Examining Children's Participation in School-Led Total Sanitation Programmes," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(5), pages 1125-1145, September.
    5. Mengyao Zhang & Michael Wyness, 2024. "Children’s Participation in Decisions Affecting their School Life in China: Towards Children’s Subjective Well-Being in School," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 17(5), pages 1941-1967, October.
    6. Ayşe Öztürk & Muhammed Eren & Barış Kalender, 2023. "To What Extent Do Children in Primary Schools Have a Voice in Context of the Right to Participation in Türkiye?: A Case Study," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(6), pages 2413-2448, December.
    7. Perry-Hazan, Lotem, 2016. "Children's participation in national policymaking: “You're so adorable, adorable, adorable! I'm speechless; so much fun!”," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 105-113.
    8. van Bijleveld, G.G. & Dedding, C.W.M. & Bunders-Aelen, J.F.G., 2014. "Seeing eye to eye or not? Young people's and child protection workers' perspectives on children's participation within the Dutch child protection and welfare services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 253-259.
    9. Lucie Moore & Susan Kirk, 2010. "A literature review of children’s and young people’s participation in decisions relating to health care," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(15‐16), pages 2215-2225, August.
    10. Berit Skauge & Anita Skårstad Storhaug & Edgar Marthinsen, 2021. "The What, Why and How of Child Participation—A Review of the Conceptualization of “Child Participation” in Child Welfare," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-15, February.
    11. Correia, Nadine & Carvalho, Helena & Durães, Joana & Aguiar, Cecília, 2020. "Teachers’ ideas about children’s participation within Portuguese early childhood education settings," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    12. Janette M. Watkins & Janelle M. Goss & Autumn P. Schigur & Megan M. Kwaiser & McKenna G. Major & Cassandra Coble & Krista Wisner & David Koceja & Vanessa M. Martinez Kercher & Kyle A. Kercher, 2025. "Co-Design with Rural Adolescents to Inform a School-Based Physical Activity and Social Media Literacy Intervention: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(10), pages 1-17, September.
    13. Dena Arya & Matt Henn, 2021. "COVID-ized Ethnography: Challenges and Opportunities for Young Environmental Activists and Researchers," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, June.
    14. Mona Treude & Ralf Schüle & Hans Haake, 2022. "Smart Sustainable Cities—Case Study Südwestfalen Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, May.
    15. Holzscheiter, Anna & Gholiagha, Sassan & Liese, Andrea, 2022. "Advocacy Coalition Constellations and Norm Collisions: Insights from International Drug Control, Human Trafficking, and Child Labour," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 25-48.
    16. Havlicek, Judy & Lin, Ching-Hsuan & Villalpando, Fabiola, 2016. "Web survey of foster youth advisory boards in the United States," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 109-118.
    17. William E. Myers, 2001. "The Right Rights? Child Labor in a Globalizing World," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 575(1), pages 38-55, May.
    18. Paulo Delgado & João M. S. Carvalho & Sílvia Alves, 2023. "Children and Young People’s Participation in decision-making in Foster Care," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(1), pages 421-445, February.
    19. Landberg, Åsa & Kaldal, Anna & Eriksson, Maria, 2025. "Fighting for opportunities for protection and rehabilitation after child sexual abuse," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    20. Usubillaga, Juan & Fitz-Symonds, Sammi & Forrester, Donald & Roberts, Louisa & Diaz, Clive & Evans, Lilly, 2024. "Doing with or doing to? A realist case study of factors affecting the implementation of guidance on child sexual exploitation in Wales," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:112:y:2020:i:c:s0190740919304839. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.