Adultism

Manfred Liebel is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Technical University of Berlin and Honorary Professor of Intercultural Studies on Childhoods and Children’s Rights at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. Philip Meade is Lecturer in Childhood Studies and Children’s Rights at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and in Child Protection at Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin.

• 1 What is adultism? A first approach1.1 How adultism is experienced1.2 Everydayness of adultism1.3 How do we understand adultism?1.4 Interpretations of adultism1.5 Precursors of the critique of adultism and research approaches1.6 Childism1.7 Related terminology1.8 Advantages and pitfalls of labelling1.9 Denying adultism1.10 Historical context 2 Adultism in social practices2.1 Analysing a social structural principle2.2 Social subordination of young people in earlier epochs and non-Western societies2.3 Three institutional pillars of adultism in contemporary Western societies: nuclear family, schooling, law and politics2.4 Six areas of adult discrimination against young people 3 Building a critical theory of adultism3.1 State of the theory3.2 Adultism as a form of discrimination3.3 Power as the motor of adultism3.4 Intersectional and social reproduction theory perspectives3.5 Effects and repercussions of adultism3.6 Preconditions and evolution of adultism3.7 Adultism in the legal and moral philosophical debate on children’s rights3.8 Adultism under pressure of justification3.9 Young people’s agency as a practical critique of adultism?3.10 Arriving at a theory of child protagonism 4 Confronting adultism4.1 Sensitising adults for adultism4.2 Who speaks for whom?4.3 Critical adulthood4.4 Is there an adultism-critical pedagogy?4.5 Working together against adultism in schools and through alternative education projects4.6 Countering adultism with children’s rights4.7 Ways towards non-adultist child protection4.8 Political participation and voting rights of children4.9 Promoting generational justice4.10 Countering adultism in urban areas and design 5 How young people challenge adultism5.1 Taking the initiative5.2 Finding a way out of political silence5.3 Standing up for social justice5.4 Surviving structural adultism5.5 International movements of working children and youth 6 Clearing the way towards an adultism-free society

“This is a wonderful book – a beautifully written, theoretically rich and example-filled examination of children’s status in the contemporary world.” Heather Montgomery, The Open University