CFP: Promoting the Participation of Children and Youth Across the Globe

Call for Book Chapters

Promoting the Participation of
Children and Youth across the Globe: From Social Exclusion to Child-Inclusive
Policies

Editors:

Tali Gal,
School of Criminology, University of Haifa

Benedetta
Faedi Duramy, Golden Gate University School of Law

The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has
inspired advocates and policy makers across the globe, injecting children’s
rights terminology into various public and private arenas. Children’s right to
participate in decision-making processes affecting their lives is the acme of
the Convention and its central contribution to the children’s rights discourse.
At the same time the participation right presents enormous challenges in its
implementation. Laws, regulations and mechanisms addressing children’s right to
participate in decision-making processes affecting their lives have been
established in many jurisdictions across the globe. Yet these world-wide
developments have only rarely been accompanied with empirical investigations.
The effectiveness of various policies in achieving meaningful participation for
children of various ages, cultures and circumstances have remained largely
unproven empirically.  With the
growing awareness of the importance of evidence-based policies it becomes clear
that without empirical investigations on the implementation of children’s right
to participation it is difficult to promote their inclusion in decision
making. 

How do children experience various fora of
decision-making? To what extent do children feel that they are able to express
their views freely and that their viewpoints are given due weight, in
accordance with their age and maturity? What kind of representation do they
regard as empowering and effective? How important do children consider their
ability to influence the outcome of the process? Who do they want to be present
in decision making mechanisms? These are some examples of child-centered
investigations toward effective child participation that the various chapters
of this book aim at describing. Other chapters may consider outcome variables
focusing on the opinions of parents, professionals and family members regarding
the way decision-making processes include children.

The overall goal of the book is to identify practices that
promote child-inclusive decision making processes that allow children of
various ages and other characteristics to engage in meaningful dialogue with
others toward the achievement of optimal decisions. The book aims to provide a
wide range of empirical data collected from various arenas and different
localities. Child-participation in schools, child-protection processes,
restorative justice mechanisms, family disputes and courts may be discussed in
the various chapters through data collected from different countries, cultures
and samples, creating a mosaic of child-participation mechanisms and their
level of success.

Abstracts due October 31, 2012.  More details after the fold.

Submission Procedure

1. Abstracts / proposals of 500 words should be submitted by 31October 2012.
Proposals should clearly reflect the main topics covered in the chapter,
chapter structure, and an overview of the relevant sources.

2. Each author of the proposal must provide a biographical sketch of 50-60
words. The sketchshould identify where authors earned their highest degrees,
their current affiliations andpositions, current research interests, and an
email address.

3. Authors will be informed about acceptance / rejection of their proposals not
later than 1February 2013 and sent chapter guidelines.

4. Full chapters should be submitted by 30November 2013.

5. To support contributors in the development of their arguments and to enhance
the cohesiveness of the book, a 4-days writing retreat may be held in May/June
2013 in which contributors will present their draft chapters and comment on
other chapters. 

6. The book is expected to be
published in winter 2014.

Instructions for Authors

1. Manuscripts
should be unpublished and not under review by any journal or
publisher, although they may be based on existing data.

2. The length of manuscript should
normally be between 7,000 and 10,000 words, excluding references.

3. Each manuscript must contain self-contained abstract (no more than 100-150
words) and 3-5 key words.

4. Manuscripts must be formatted according to the provided template.

5. Manuscripts should be reasonably divided into sections.

6. Images and tables should be numbered consecutively and should be referred to
in the main text.

7. Images should be supplied as JPEG with a minimum resolution of 300 DPI.

8. References and in-text citations should be prepared according to Chicago
Manual of Style.

9. The book will have an international readership, so please avoid the use of
terms that might be meaningful only to a local or national audience, or provide
a clear explanation where this is unavoidable.

Important Dates
31 October 2012: Proposal Submission Deadline
1 February 2013: Notification of Acceptance

May/June (dates will be provided
after Notification of Acceptance): 4-days Writing Retreat
30November 2013: Full Chapter Submission

Contact
Assistant Professor Dr. Tali Gal, School of Criminology, University of Haifa.
Email: tali.gal.04@gmail.com

Associate
ProfessorDr. Benedetta Faedi Duramy, Golden Gate University School of Law.
Email: bfduramy@ggu.edu.