Children's participation, childhood publics and social change: a review

Progress in the implementation of children's participation rights in England is reviewed and situated within a broader agenda of social change. The article argues that much of the energy for ‘change for children’ has resided within a governance pathway across policy, practice and research. An alternative perspective is offered by re-connecting children's rights debates to those of social movements and asking whether childhood publics are possible, what they might look like and where they might be found. It is concluded that a cross-national and longitudinal perspective grounded in everyday life is likely to provide a more nuanced understanding of the change for children.