Third ISA Forum of Sociology (July 10-14, 2016)

609

Intersectionality, Discrimination and Children

RC53 Sociology of Childhood (host committee)

Language: English

Intersectionality and intersectional discrimination are concepts used to describe the situation where multiple grounds of discrimination operate at the same time. However, little is known about the intersection of multiple attributes of discrimination among children, including adolescents. 
This session attempts to shed light on the complex ways in which children are denied the equal enjoyment of their rights and freedoms because of discrimination against them on the basis of their age in combination with gender, ethnicity, disability, nationality, economic location and various other grounds.
The purpose of the session is to illustrate how intersectional discrimination takes various forms, such as discrimination within laws and policies or by state authorities (structural intersectionality), and discrimination in political and public forums for participation (political and representational intersectionality). These forms of discrimination can be intentional or unintentional in character, the latter resulting when an ostensibly neutral provision or practice is discriminatory in its effects. This session also intends to differentiate between the external sphere (state and society) and the internal sphere (family and community) where children experience interrelated forms of discrimination, and to show how this increases the disempowerment of the child. 
The session aims to encourage bringing forth comparative analyses of lived experiences of children by providing a systematic and comprehensive attention to children’s vulnerability to intersectional discrimination both from the Global North and the Global South within the broader framework of hyper-capitalism, i.e. globalization along with its deep-rooted transnational character for a future we want. Posters: