Pushing the Boundaries: Critical International Perspectives on Child and Youth Participation Series Introduction

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments. Vol 16, No.2 (2006) ISSN 1546-2250 Pushing the Boundaries: Critical International Perspectives on Child and Youth Participation Series Introduction Caitlin Cahill University of Utah Roger A. Hart Children's Environments Research Group, Environmental Psychology Program Graduate School of the City University of New York Citation: Cahill, Caitlin and Roger A. Hart (2006). “Pushing the Boundaries: Critical International Perspectives on Child and Youth Participation—Series Introduction.” Children, Youth and Environments 16(2): i-iii. Participatory research and practice offers a promising new framework for researchers, youth workers and child rights advocates of all kinds who are committed to social justice and change around the world. In this international volume of Children, Youth and Environments we offer an opportunity to read about work on child and youth participation from nine regions of the world, each of which will be represented in its own installment published throughout this year: Africa (Dipak Naker and Rakesh Rajani, editors); Australia and New Zealand/Aotearoa (Anita Harris, editor); Europe (Barry Percy-Smith and Alison Clark, editors); Japan (Isami Kinoshita, editor); Latin and South America and the Caribbean (Yolanda Corona and Maru Linares, editors); Middle East and North Africa (Maha Damaj, editor); North America (Caitlin Cahill and Roger Hart, editors); Southeast Asia, East Asia and the Pacific (Joachim Theis, editor); and South and Central Asia (Claire O’Kane and Ravi Karkara, editors). Participatory approaches to community research, development and governance with children and youth have demonstrated that engaging the perspectives of young people challenges their social exclusion, and builds their capacity to analyze and transform their own lives and to partner in the building of more sound, democratic ix communities. However, not enough attention has been given to systematically evaluating and critiquing these participatory practices. This special issue of CYE offers an international forum to review and advance the field, developing its potential through crosscultural dialogue, self-reflexive critique, and critical synthesis. Forefronting contextualized knowledge and personal experiences, participatory research and practice has necessarily placed an emphasis upon the local, often failing to theorize connections to broader social processes. By contrast, this issue will offer a global perspective on participatory work with young people that is grounded in local practice. While the papers are divided into world regions, we hope this issue will stimulate a truly global crosscultural dialogue. To this end, we invite you to revisit this special issue at the end of the year where an epilogue, authored by all of the regional editors, will offer a critical lens across global participatory practice with young people. Both theoretical and practical insights are offered in the papers of this wide-ranging issue, addressing key critical questions including:  What are the different guiding theories of participatory practice that are in use?  How has the practice of young people's participation been developing in innovative ways in different cultures as a result of particular cultural views of the appropriate roles and activities for young people?  What different domains of research and action are young people involved in or excluded from?  At what ages do young people take an active role in development in different parts of the world?  How have gender-related considerations been incorporated in participatory approaches?  Is young peoples' research taken seriously by formal government and official agencies? What are the different strategies by which this has been achieved in different parts of the world?  For what types of issues has the research of young people been able to contribute to social change? viii  What is being done to help young people make deeper connections between their local research and action and broader global conditions?  What critical roles do adults play in supporting and facilitating youth participation?  What do we know about the significance of different institutional, governmental and legislative contexts at the local and national levels in supporting young people's participation?  What are the distinctive issues in young people's participation in planning and design?  What are the relevant historical antecedents in the evolution of participatory approaches involving children and youth? We invite you to read the dozens of papers in this issue, written by scholars and practitioners, as well as young people themselves, from over 37 countries around...