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Authors of their own lives? Children, Contracts, their Responsibilities, Rights and Citizenship
In: The International Journal of Children's RightsThis article explores contract theory and suggests that a focus on contracts provides an understanding of what it is to be human and the concomitant rights that spring from this. Thus despite children being a ‘special case’ and requiring higher levels of protection and intervention than adults, this always remains a gift that does not have the clarity or effectiveness that contracts provide. While retaining a constant critical distance attention to children’s ‘ability’ to write contracts illustrates in a clear way the evolving capacities of the child and the graduated way in which children are expected to gain responsibilities. This more complex and contested formulation of rights tends to be embedded in specific case laws at a local level, in direct contrast to the more abstract forms of rights that may present all children as vulnerable and lacking. Though the prism of contracts, a perspective to wider economic inequalities is enabled in a manner that may give us a different approach to issues such as consumerism.
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| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 188 | 20 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 200 | 7 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 102 | 8 | 3 |
Authors of their own lives? Children, Contracts, their Responsibilities, Rights and Citizenship
In: The International Journal of Children's RightsThis article explores contract theory and suggests that a focus on contracts provides an understanding of what it is to be human and the concomitant rights that spring from this. Thus despite children being a ‘special case’ and requiring higher levels of protection and intervention than adults, this always remains a gift that does not have the clarity or effectiveness that contracts provide. While retaining a constant critical distance attention to children’s ‘ability’ to write contracts illustrates in a clear way the evolving capacities of the child and the graduated way in which children are expected to gain responsibilities. This more complex and contested formulation of rights tends to be embedded in specific case laws at a local level, in direct contrast to the more abstract forms of rights that may present all children as vulnerable and lacking. Though the prism of contracts, a perspective to wider economic inequalities is enabled in a manner that may give us a different approach to issues such as consumerism.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 188 | 20 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 200 | 7 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 102 | 8 | 3 |