Children as citizens

The aim is to develop research based insights about the relationships between global discourses on children’s rights, welfare policy and children’s experiences and perspectives of their welfare. The project explores from different perspectives and on different societal levels (cf. Welfare Programme, p. 3) how global discourses on children’s rights to participation (art 12) and the principle of the best interests of the child (art 3) in the CRC are interpreted and practiced in different societies. It seeks to elaborate larger concerns about the changing nature of democracy, childhood, and young people’s experiences of their welfare, and critically investigate the concepts and approaches embedded in the global rights discourses. Subprojects are: 1 Children's perspectives on citizenship and nation-building in a comparative perspective, 2 Childhood’s ambiguity – politics and practice on children’s rights in context of family change, 3 Refugee children, citizenship and ’the best interests’ of the child. A comparative perspective is firmly included in the project.

Management: Associate Professor, Director Anne Trine Kjørholt and Professor Jens Qvortrup

Project period: 2006-2009

Financing: The Norwegian Research Council

Sub-projects:

Childhood’s ambiguity – politics and practice on children’s rights in context of family change
Gry Mette Haugen and Minna Rantalaiho

Project period: 2006-2009

Financing: The Norwegian Research Council

Children’s perspectives on citizenship and nation-building in a comparative perspective
Håvard Bjerke

This project is part of an international comparative research project focusing on children’s perspectives on their rights, responsibilities and citizenship at home, in school and in the community. The project was initiated by Childwatch International Research Network and includes institutions in Norway, Palestine, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Brazil. The aim of the project is to develop knowledge about how children’s rights are implemented in different countries, and to see how this knowledge can be used to improve the situation. A focus group protocol is developed that is used in interviews with children aged 8 – 9 years and 14 – 15 years old in all the participating countries. In Norway, we will also have individual interviews with a sample of children and their parents, that is related to the children’s daily life at home, at school and in the community.

Supervisors: Anne Trine Kjørholt and Jens Qvortrup

Project period: 01.04.2006 - 31.03.2009

Financing: The Norwegian Research Council

Refugee children, citizenship and ’the best interests’ of the child
Josée Archambault

The research project aims at documenting the experience of asylum-seeking children 7 to 12 years during their settlement in Norway and to explore what form of citizenship refugee children can experience as minority children and as children of minority parents in the nation-state. This research is based on a fieldwork conducted in 2007 and 2008 with asylum-seeking families who had been granted a residence permit transferring them the right to settle in Norway as refugees. Twelve families with 21 children (between 7 and 12) were met before (in reception centres for asylum-seekers) and after their official settlement in a Norwegian municipality. The fieldwork focused on children's experience of settlement within their family, looking at their expectations, their experience of services (according to their rights), their participation in the local community, and their process of belonging to the Norwegian society as new citizens.

Supervisors: Jens Qvortrup and Berit Berg

Project period: February 2006 – October 2009

Financing: The Norwegian Research Council