Exploring Agency in Children and Youth Expressions and Constraints

In this critical study, readers are asked to consider the ways in which children and youth are constrained by social, cultural, political, and economic forces and how they overcome the false adult-child dichotomy to exercise their own agency.

Among the issues raised in the chapters of this volume is the place of institutional and residential care and a child’s right to determine where they live; children as the subjects of academic research; and the voice of children and youth in the justice system, particularly that of Indigenous youth.

Each chapter explores and challenges the notion that only adults can understand and determine the needs of young people by providing examples of children and youth who already participate in complex systems and environments and by arguing for an acknowledgement of their rights and agency in each circumstance. By dismantling the Western world’s romantic notion of childhood innocence, the authors critically explore understandings of young people as agents in their own worlds.

About the Editors

Voula Marinos is an associate professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University and a member of the Canadian Centre for Lifespan Research at Brock University.

Christine Tardif-Williams is an associate professor at Brock University and a developmental psychologist whose main research interests include the social emotional development of children and youth within the context of family relationships.

Dawn Zinga is professor and associate dean in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Graduate Studies and Research, at Brock University. Her current research focuses on students’ experiences within educational settings, Indigenous education, and young competitive dancers’ experiences.

Rebecca Raby is a professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University as well as Director of the Social Justice Research Institute. Her research focuses on conceptualizations of childhood and youth and theorizing and studying young people’s agency and participation.

Shauna Pomerantz is associate professor at Brock University whose research interests include media studies, youth studies, and social justice.

Contributors: Yana Berardini (Lakman), Seamus Byrne, Heather Chalmers, Maureen Connolly, Gerald Cradock, Christine Goodwin-DeFaria, Klari Kalkman, Wolfgang Lehmann, Danielle Molnar, Cayleigh Sexton, Cecilia Turnbull, Tony Volk, Kaitlynn Weaver

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.