From Objects of Care to Citizens—Young Carers’ Citizenship

Abstract

Wihstutz explores children’s everyday care practice as an expression of lived citizenship. Based on secondary qualitative data on young carers in the Global North and child headed households in the Global South, children are depicted as citizens struggling for recognition and equal access to resources. Concepts of ‘good childhood’ and ‘children at risk’ are discussed in terms of possible excluding and discriminating effects on young carers. Through the lens of feminist ethics, care strategies become context-bound expressions of interdependence between children and their (adult) kin, embedded in asymmetrical power relationships. The question is raised how social services need to be oriented to contribute to the empowerment of young carers and their citizenship.