New text on children and young people's participation

There's a new book out from Routledge called A Handbook of Children and Young People's Participation: Perspectives from Theory and Practice, by Barry Percy-Smith and Nigel Thomas. It's 400 pages and aimed at both scholars and practioners.

From the flyer:

Promoting the participation of children and young people--in decision-making and policy development, and as active contributors to everyday family and community 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.

Some sample chapters:

• Challenges of participatory practice
• Armed conflict and post conflict peace building
• Participation of children in the most difficult situations
• Children’s participation in law reform in South Africa
• Disabled children and participation in the UK
• Participation among young people with mental health issue
• The construction of childhood and the socialisation of children in Ghana
• Youth participation in indigenous traditional communities
• Children’s participation in school and the local community
• Getting the measure of children and young people’s participation
• Challenging obstacles to the participation of children and young people in Rwanda
• Child reporters as agents of change
• Children’s participation in citizenship and governance
• The effectiveness of Youth Councils in Scotland
• Critiquing youth parliaments as models of representation for marginalised young people
• Children and deliberative democracy
• Governance and participation

Barry Percy-Smith is Reader in Childhood and Participatory Practice at the SOLAR Action Research Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.

Nigel Thomas is Professor of Childhood and Youth Research at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, and Co-Director of The Centre, which promotes and conducts research on children and young people’s participation.

A Handbook of Children and Young People's Participation will be available August 14, 2009.