Listening to Children: A Childist Analysis of Children’s Participation in Family Law Cases

Building on critical childhood studies and childism, this paper analyses children’s participation in family law cases in Denmark. Spurred particularly by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, together with a general shift in the view on children, several jurisdictions, including Denmark, hav...

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Main Author: Sarah Alminde
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-02-01
Series:Social Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/3/133
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author Sarah Alminde
author_facet Sarah Alminde
author_sort Sarah Alminde
collection DOAJ
description Building on critical childhood studies and childism, this paper analyses children’s participation in family law cases in Denmark. Spurred particularly by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, together with a general shift in the view on children, several jurisdictions, including Denmark, have implemented legislative reform in the last decades to accommodate children’s participation rights. Even though such legal participation rights have increased, research in the family law field indicates that children’s perspectives are often undermined or excluded. An analysis of qualitative data (workshops, observations, and interviews) establishes how the positioning of children and children’s perspectives (as well as how “listening to children” is enacted) can be crucial to understanding the mechanisms that either subsidize or undermine children’s perspectives in family law cases. The paper argues further that “listening emergent” to children can offer a path to deconstructing the norms and structures that undermine and exclude children’s views—and thus offer a childist contribution to childhood research.
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spelling doaj.art-7ef5c6c49f494b418d493c7f57cc1a772024-03-27T14:04:37ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602024-02-0113313310.3390/socsci13030133Listening to Children: A Childist Analysis of Children’s Participation in Family Law CasesSarah Alminde0Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Universitetsvej 1, 4000 Roskilde, DenmarkBuilding on critical childhood studies and childism, this paper analyses children’s participation in family law cases in Denmark. Spurred particularly by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, together with a general shift in the view on children, several jurisdictions, including Denmark, have implemented legislative reform in the last decades to accommodate children’s participation rights. Even though such legal participation rights have increased, research in the family law field indicates that children’s perspectives are often undermined or excluded. An analysis of qualitative data (workshops, observations, and interviews) establishes how the positioning of children and children’s perspectives (as well as how “listening to children” is enacted) can be crucial to understanding the mechanisms that either subsidize or undermine children’s perspectives in family law cases. The paper argues further that “listening emergent” to children can offer a path to deconstructing the norms and structures that undermine and exclude children’s views—and thus offer a childist contribution to childhood research.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/3/133childismadultismchildhood studieschildren’s participationdivorceparental separation
spellingShingle Sarah Alminde
Listening to Children: A Childist Analysis of Children’s Participation in Family Law Cases
Social Sciences
childism
adultism
childhood studies
children’s participation
divorce
parental separation
title Listening to Children: A Childist Analysis of Children’s Participation in Family Law Cases
title_full Listening to Children: A Childist Analysis of Children’s Participation in Family Law Cases
title_fullStr Listening to Children: A Childist Analysis of Children’s Participation in Family Law Cases
title_full_unstemmed Listening to Children: A Childist Analysis of Children’s Participation in Family Law Cases
title_short Listening to Children: A Childist Analysis of Children’s Participation in Family Law Cases
title_sort listening to children a childist analysis of children s participation in family law cases
topic childism
adultism
childhood studies
children’s participation
divorce
parental separation
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/3/133
work_keys_str_mv AT sarahalminde listeningtochildrenachildistanalysisofchildrensparticipationinfamilylawcases