Children's Participation Rights in the European Union
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Freie Universität Berlin Otto-Suhr-Institut für Politikwissenschaft Children's Participation Rights in the European Union The Prospect of Meaningful Policy through Images of Children Masterarbeit vorgelegt von: Martha Schillmöller M.A. Politikwissenschaft – Affaires Internationales/Affaires Européennes Erstgutachter: Dr. Andreas Hofmann Zweitgutachterin: Prof. Dr. Miriam Hartlapp Wörter: 16 508 (inklusive Bibliographie und Fußnoten; exklusive Anhang, Inhaltsverzeichnis, Abstract, Abkürzungs-, Tabellen- und Abbildungsverzeichnis, Beschriftungen von Tabellen und Abbildungen) Berlin, 21. Juni 2021 Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 RELEVANCE AND CONTEXT ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 RESEARCH INTEREST AND QUESTION(S) ................................................................................................ 2 1.3 THESIS STRUCTURE ................................................................................................................................ 3 2. DEFINITIONS .............................................................................................................................................. 4 2.1 CHILDREN .............................................................................................................................................. 4 2.2 THE CHILD AS SUBJECT: THE IDEAL IMAGE FOR CHILD PARTICIPATION ............................................... 5 2.3 DEFINING MEANINGFUL CHILD PARTICIPATION (POLICY) ..................................................................... 5 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................................................................. 6 3.1 HONNETH’S THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONCEPT OF RECOGNITION ............................................................ 7 3.2 APPLYING HONNETH’S RECOGNITION CONCEPT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION .......................................... 8 4. STATE OF THE ART: THE INTELLECTUAL ROOTS OF CHILDREN’S PARTICIPATION RIGHTS ................................................................................................................................................................... 8 4.1 THE RESEARCH FIELD(S) ON CHILDREN’S PARTICIPATION RIGHTS ....................................................... 9 4.2 IMAGES OF CHILDREN .......................................................................................................................... 10 4.2.1 Translating and Uncovering: Images of Children as Figurative Elements ................................... 11 4.2.2 Classifying: Images of Children as Cultural Country Approaches ................................................ 11 4.2.3 Normative Function: Images of Children as Policy Targets .......................................................... 12 5. TURNING RIGHTS INTO REALITIES IN THE EU ............................................................................ 13 5.1 THE UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD (CRC) AND THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE ............. 13 5.2 THE EU’S CHILDREN’S RIGHTS FRAMEWORK: COMPETENCES AND IMAGES ....................................... 13 5.3 WHY FOCUSING ON EU MEMBER STATES? WHAT ABOUT CULTURAL ATTITUDES, NORMS AND VALUES? ............................................................................................................................................................ 15 5.4 LIMITS OF IMAGES OF CHILDREN ......................................................................................................... 17 5.4.1 Reductionism .................................................................................................................................. 17 5.4.2 Intentions, Authenticity and Credibility.......................................................................................... 17 6. METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................................................... 18 6.1 CASE SELECTION .................................................................................................................................. 18 6.2 RESEARCH APPROACH ......................................................................................................................... 20 6.3 MATRIX WITH A SPECTRUM-APPROACH (“OPERATIONALISATION”).................................................... 21 6.4 DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................... 24 6.5 DATA.................................................................................................................................................... 24 7. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL AND PRESIDENCY CHILD IMAGES ........... 26 7.1 ROMANIA ............................................................................................................................................. 26 7.1.1 National Child Approach................................................................................................................ 26 7.1.2 Presidency Child Images ................................................................................................................ 28 7.2 GERMANY ............................................................................................................................................ 32 7.2.1 National Child Approach................................................................................................................ 32 7.2.2 Presidency Child Images ................................................................................................................ 35 7.3 FINLAND............................................................................................................................................... 38 7.3.1 National Child Approach................................................................................................................ 38 7.3.2 Presidency Child Images ................................................................................................................ 40 7.4 CHILDREN OR YOUNG PEOPLE? ATTRIBUTIONAL PRECISIONS FOR ALL PRESIDENCIES ....................... 44 8. CONCLUDING DISCUSSION AND RESULTS..................................................................................... 45 8.1 VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL ASSESSMENTS ................................................................................................ 45 8.2 LIMITS AND QUALITY STANDARDS ............................................................................................................... 46 8.3 IMPLICATIONS AND INSPIRATION FOR RESEARCH AND POLICY .................................................................... 48 8.4 OUTLOOK ...................................................................................................................................................... 49 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................................... 50 APPENDIXES ....................................................................................................................................................... 63 APPENDIX A: LIST OF DOCUMENTS .................................................................................................................... 63 1. Further Information on Document Identification ..................................................................................... 63 2. Speech Acts ............................................................................................................................................... 64 3. Presidency-Programmes, Presidency-Discussion-Papers and other Non-Oral Statements .................... 73 APPENDIX B: CODES, DEFINITIONS AND TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF CODE ATTRIBUTION ...................................... 75 APPENDIX C: ALL CODED SEGMENTS FROM THE DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ........................................................... 84 APPENDIX D: SMALL-SCALE DOCUMENT ANALYSIS FOR DEFINING THE CHILD AS SUBJECT ............................ 85 1. Description of Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 85 2. Speech Acts for Defining the Child as Subject .......................................................................................... 89 List of Abbreviations CRC United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child EP European Parliament EPSCO Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council EU European Union EYCS Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council UN United Nations List of Figures FIGURE 1: RECOGNITION-MATRIX: HONNETH’S (1995:129) STRUCTURE OF RELATIONS OF RECOGNITION DISTINGUISHED BY SUBJECT/OBJECT AS CATEGORIES FOR CHILDREN'S IMAGES (ILLUSTRATION BY THE PRESENT AUTHOR) ................................................................................... 22 FIGURE 2: SIMPLIFIED RECOGNITION-MATRIX ...................................................................................... 23 FIGURE 3: OWN ILLUSTRATION FOLLOWING O’MAHONY’S (2019:432) CONSTITUTIONAL CHILD RIGHTS AGENCY SPECTRUM ......................................................................................................... 26 FIGURE 4: ROMANIA'S NATIONAL CHILD APPROACH: OBJECT-SOLIDARITY MATRIX-SPHERE