A Handbook of Children and Young People's Participation brings

together key thinkers and practitioners from diverse contexts across

the globe to provide an authoritative overview of contemporary theory

and practice around children's participation.

Promoting the participation of children and young people - in

decision-making and policy development, and as active contributors

to everyday family and community life - has become a central part of

policy and programme initiatives in both majority and minority worlds.

This book presents the most useful recent work in children's

participation as a resource for academics, students and practitioners

in childhood studies, children's rights and welfare, child and family

social work, youth and community work, governance, aid and

development programmes.

The book introduces key concepts and debates, and presents a rich

collection of accounts of the diverse ways in which children's

participation is understood and enacted around the world,

interspersed with reflective commentaries from adults and young

people. It concludes with a number of substantial theoretical

contributions that aim to take forward our understanding of children's

participation.

The emphasis throughout the text is on learning from the complexity

of children's participation in practice to improve our theoretical

understanding, and on using those theoretical insights to challenge

practice, with the aim of realising children's rights and citizenship

more fully.