Paternalism, Participation and Children's Protagonism

Manfred Liebel
International Academy at the Free University of Berlin
Faculty of Humanities, Technical University of Berlin, Germany

Citation: Liebel, Manfred (2007). "Paternalism, Participation and Children's Protagonism." Children, Youth and Environments 17 (2): 56-73. Retrieved [date] from http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/

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Abstract

Referring to the Working Children and Adolescents’ Movements (NATs) of Latin America, the paper explains the concepts and expressions of children’s protagonism as an answer to typical paternalistic social structures and reduced concepts of participation. After distinguishing traditional from modern kinds of paternalism, the paper demonstrates the ways in which NATs challenge paternalism and explains the origins of the debate over children’s protagonism. The paper then discusses the different forms, previous conditions, appropriate elements and different levels of realization of children’s protagonism. The author concludes that children’s protagonism requires from society the amplification of children’s possibilities to participate not only in “children’s matters,” but in all issues of society; in other words, to recognize children as citizens.

Keywords: children, working children, social movements, paternalism, participation, protagonism