Global standards and deficit childhoods: the contested meaning of children's participation

In recent years a discursive voice-based form of children's participation has become a global standard. This has rendered more material children's practices particularly in less-affluent regions as deviant forms of participation. Drawing on the case of child labour, I critically examine the dominance of a discursive model of participation in terms of international policy statements. I argue for a more inclusive notion of children's participation incorporating children's economic as well as discursive contributions within their families, communities and schools. At the same time a more nuanced view potentially shifts the policy focus towards the legitimation of child labour rather than its condemnation.