Critical Children’s Rights Studies

Valeria Llobet holds a PhD in social psychology from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina). She is a Professor in the School of Humanities, Universidad de San Martín (Argentina) and a researcher at CONICET (National Council of Research). Her work focuses on children’s rights, gender and class inequalities.Didier Reynaert is Lecturer in Social Work and Senior Researcher at the EQUALITY//ResearchCollective of HOGENT University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Social Welfare (Belgium). His expertise lies in the field of social work theory, social justice and human rights and Critical Children's Rights Studies.Afua Twum-Danso Imoh is Associate Professor in Global Childhoods and Welfare at the University of Bristol (UK). Her work explores the intersections between children’s rights and cultural norms in Ghana. She is an editor for the Palgrave Macmillan Study of Childhood and Youth Series and serves on the editorial boards of several journals.Wouter Vandenhole is Full Professor of Human Rights and Children’s Rights and directs the Law and Development Research Group of the University of Antwerp’s (Belgium) law faculty. His research interests include children’s rights, economic, social and cultural rights, the relationship between human rights law and sustainable development, and thicker human rights accountability.

• Critical Children’s Rights Studies: an introduction 1. Am I a critical children’s rights researcher? A reflexive analysis of the adaptive model of childhood 2. Children’s liberation: a critical return to the radical work of Shulamith Firestone 3. Children's rights as counter-rights: how the paternalism of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child can be countered 4. Children’s search for equality: between the legal and the political 5. Children’s rights from a childist perspective: theorizing social empowerment 6. Children’s rights and the future 7. Recasting children’s rights as relational, circular, and interdependent 8. Destabilizing images of the competent adult vs. the incompetent child in dominant children’s rights discourses through the lens of Akan notions of personhood and social relations 9. Those afraid of gender and childhood: anti-gender attacks against Judith Butler in Brazil 10.Child, early and forced marriage from a critical children’s rights perspective 11. Child rights regimes and the political economy of children and childhood: a historical perspective of time in interpreting social change 12. The hidden histories of children’s rights 13. Historicizing rights subjectivities in post-colonial contexts: the right to education and the deregulation of child labour in India 14. The social construction of children’s rights: origins of, and developments in, the children’s rights movement in Flanders 15. Strategic uses and redefinitions of children's rights: violence against children in Argentina and Brazil 16. Beyond implementation: a critical children’s rights-based approach to the experiences of neurodiverse justice-involved youth 17. A critical perspective on children’s right to play 18. Children’s rights implementation as a lived practice: an ethnography of implementation in India and its potential for critical children’s rights studies 19. Critique after inclusion: three pathways towards a critical study of children’s rights Conclusion

The book, Critical Children’s Rights Studies: A Research Companion, thoughtfully brings together contemporary debates on critical approaches to children’s rights, with the goal of deconstructing dominant discourses and offering alternative rights narratives. Whilst questioning binary approaches and discussing scholars’ own positionality around the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, this timely volume highlights the need to combine the theoretical focus of critical children’s rights studies with substantial, practical contributions to children's lives.Dr Patricio Cuevas-Parra, University of Edinburgh, UK Critical Children’s Rights Studies: A Research Companion is an essential work that challenges dominant discourses while advancing innovative paradigms. By bringing together leading scholars, it deepens our understanding of children’s rights through critical, interdisciplinary perspectives. Indispensable for scholars and practitioners alike, this volume reshapes the field with rigour and insight.Professor Shazly Savahl, University of the Western Cape, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Utrecht University, the NetherlandsCritical Children’s Rights Studies: A Research Companion rows through rivers less navigated to chart new waters in children’s rights. A series of critical thinking seminars set the authors on their journey to uncover streams of research that flow towards a critical assessment of children. A must-read for those who take children’s rights seriously.Professor Ann Skelton, Professor of Law, Leiden University, the Netherlands, and Chairperson, UN Committee on the Rights of the ChildThe contributors to the Critical Children’s Rights Studies: A Research Companion engage in profound debates about the complexities of children’s rights challenging dominant discourses as well as offering alternative paths to children’s rights; the book is an outstanding contribution to current debates and to the emerging field of critical children’s rights studies. Professor Spyros Spyrou, Professor in Sociocultural Anthropology, European University CyprusCritical Children's Rights Studies: A Research Companion tackles global challenges facing children, offering profound insights into rights, power, and agency. This groundbreaking multidisciplinary volume reimagines debates on children's rights through diverse perspectives and methods, inspiring transformative thinking and action to advance their well-being in today’s complex world.Dr Jana Tabak, Assistant Professor, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Brazil