Children, young people and civic participation: regulation and local diversity

International and national political agendas have prioritized children's issues in the past decade or so. However the nature of the commitment to children themselves participating in arrangements that affect them and their communities are highly ambiguous. Whilst children's voices have become progressively louder, the extent to which these voices are articulated within spaces for participation over which children can genuinely claim ownership are often compromised by political structures determined by adults. This article examines these participatory spaces for children within the civic or political realm. Drawing on two distinct cases of civic participation, the paper explores the ways that young participants understand their relationship to adult structures and negotiate their roles as representatives of children's interests.