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Children of the Nation State – Children of the International Community: Utility, Citizens, and Beyond?
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC53 Sociology of Childhood (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
The interests of both the nation and national institutions and the international community and its organizations had been rather different for a long time: Historical studies have highlighted a utilitarian approach of the nation state towards children, framing them as a property or as a gateway to future welfare and public order. Meanwhile, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child framed them as global citizens and bearers of fundamental rights. The international community thus addressed its claims to the nation states; the latter complying to such exigencies often quite unwillingly and sometimes only in pretense. However, the divisions between both positions start to blur, as nation states adopted a language of citizenship, whereas international and NGOs invested in utilitarian discourses, especially the language of human capital and human development.
We welcome papers that address the legal and institutional developments (or the inertia) of both the nation state and the international community in their approaches to child politics (e.g., knowledge, instruments, and institutional responses), addressing old and new claims for the states’ responsibilities for children. We are also interested in studies that shed light on the interrelations between different political bodies (e.g., family, nation state, ethnic groups, or the international community) and how they differ or converge in their means, goals, and approaches to children and childhoods. Finally, we invite papers on the responses of the civil society and on the situation of children as experienced by themselves as targets of national and international (and possibly intersecting) policy lines.