Reflections on the UNCRC’s Future from a Transdisciplinary Bricoleur

Abstract

The paper argues two main points. First, there remain vast untapped potentials for implementing children’s rights within both present and coming generations, and second, that transdisciplinary theorising and local application can create and exploit such new opportunities. The paper begins with a theoretical analysis of the cross-cutting nature of the UNCRC, and its continued civilising impact as part of the globalised ‘rights revolutions’ reported by controversial Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker (2011: 378-481). I then move to a methodological reflection on how the treaty might be applied as a bricoleur in the lived experiences of children, families, caregivers and communities. The final section outlines a case study from the grape and wine industry located within the Niagara Region of Canada that applied these theoretical and methodological resources as a form of critical praxis in the lives of migrant agricultural workers temporarily employed there through the growing season year after year.