XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

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Childhood at the Intersection of Discourses on Rights and Power: 30 Years after the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Part I

RC53 Sociology of Childhood (host committee)
RC25 Language and Society

Language: English

The 2018 World Congress of Sociology takes place 30 years after the signing of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This landmark political act has been hailed as a victory for the children’s rights movement, but also heavily criticized from its early days. The UNCRC is criticized for overemphasizing children’s liberties, while undermining adults’ rights to protect and educate them. Others criticize the UNCRC as a moral crusade to save the world’s children, for consolidating disciplinary strategies based on authoritarian knowledge stemming from Western Enlightenment, which imposes a set idea of child and childhood. The ongoing sociological, pedagogical and political debate around the nature of children’s rights and intergenerational relationships lends itself as an example of the problematic coexistence of contrasting discourses on childhood and education. These discourses underpin the language of legislation, policy-making, education, healthcare, social services, and the law. Diverging concepts of power, rights, justice concerning intergenerational and intercultural relations suggest a more flexible idea of childhood. This session welcomes contributions interested in the relationship between positioning of childhood in society and the language that represents it. A not exhaustive list of themes would include: