The Kids are in Charge focuses on working children's movements in Peru that have existed since the 1970s, well before the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was drafted, subsequently adopted and ratified by most states worldwide. The book is organised in two parts. Part I deals with historical and conceptual issues and Part II focuses on the analysis of ethnographic data.
Part I initially deals with the history of the movements and the Peruvian context, and presents the ethnographic work that has been carried out, mainly interviews and participant observation, in selected working children's day centres and during events. It then presents the conceptual framework of protagonismo and how ‘work’ is understood within the movements. Protagonismo is distinct from other social movements in that whilst it includes some features of the children's rights approach it proposes a notion of collective rather than individual rights. It relies on Andean child-rearing practices that consider children members of an interdependent community. It equally appreciates the rights and responsibilities of children and their individual and collective agency, and firmly adopts a holistic position to the promotion of self-determination, dignity and the recognised status of children within political, economic and social spheres.
The next chapter examines working children's movements’ conceptualisation of intergenerational relations. Working children's movements pursue more horizontal and equal relationship between children and adults and have developed their own concepts and pedagogy. The analysis is a detailed deconstruction of equality and power.
Part II is an analysis of practices, interactions and discourses emerging from ethnographic data, comparing, contrasting and complementing concepts developed in earlier chapters.
It initially examines the various roles adults (particularly colaboradores) play in everyday interactions with children and details their constant effort to create more equal and horizontal relations with children and to promote their participation. It analyses varied identities of adults and conceptions of childhood that lead to different emphases on care, teaching, dialogue, collaborative work, etc. The overall conclusion is that despite their roles being different, children learn within the movement that adults listen to them, respect their rights and care about their opinions, which best represents the specific educational relationships promoted.
The book then moves on to the analysis of power relations between adults and children, building on concepts outlined in Part I: this analysis is extremely interesting. Jessica Taft deconstructs the notion of power (discipline, speech, influence, leadership, etc.) to give an account of the complex processes involved and the rather fluid nature of power. She shows that whilst the pedagogy adopted by the movements nurtures and certainly provide evidence of relationships that are more horizontal than in other settings, the persistence of age-based power inevitably shows up in daily activities and events. The power adults have in society is constrained within the movements but, for various reasons, it cannot be eliminated. Moving away from simplistic discussions, the author pinpoints a key feature of the movements as a constant effort to disrupt power relationships, as well as a position that leads both adults and children to constantly learn from experience and dialogue.
The final chapter examines the achievements of the working children's movements over their four decades of existence. It covers improvements in children's individual lives, influence on policy and cultures of childhood, the creation of new spaces for political inclusion, their involvement in schools, and national and international policy on child labour. Despite decades of mobilisation, little influence has been gained through debate and policy-making on child labour. It is in other areas that significant achievements are evident. Although advances in children's rights are limited, the movements have progressively changed the landscape of Peruvian policy-making and considerably increased the awareness of the movements’ competence and their right to be involved in discussion and decision-making.
This research is an important and extremely valuable academic contribution in many respects. The in-depth analysis must have been challenging at times, given the amount and the variety of information gathered. Yet, it constantly avoids idealising or trivialising the practices observed and, more importantly, it constantly resists working on simplified oppositions or binary arguments. It rather keeps deconstructing concepts to reflect more accurately on the everyday practices observed.
It provides material for organisations and scholars working within or outside children's movements, for instance in child participation or children's rights. It also provides effective tools for the examination of the dynamics of power and intergenerational relationships, and will be of use for comparative research or for organisations willing to learn to develop more equal intergenerational relationships in a variety of settings including education or children's and young people's human rights.
It is a very distinctive experience that emerges from this ethnographic research, not only because the movements involve children of a quite young age, but also because of the complex way it pursues social change. As the author argues, working children's movements fit best in an analysis as social movements whose actions aim at fostering social and legal changes within, but also outside, the formal or institutional channels from which children are more often than not excluded anyway. If we accept that approach, we also accept that children's organisations can be compared with adult movements. As the author argues, adult movements do not necessarily achieve the objectives they pursue: feminist movements are still fighting for gender equality and so are organisations fighting different forms of discrimination. When it comes to children, however, the criteria against which these experiences are judged are very different.
The discussion addresses criticism often directed at working children's movements – as well as at other young people's movements elsewhere – that are regularly accused of manipulating children. The analysis brings a very much needed dose of realism to the face of idealised or ‘populist’ views of child participation, as well as a proper response to abstract criticism that either accepts nothing less than perfection when it comes to children and children's participation or that dismisses it entirely on the grounds of a predetermined view that childhood is and can only be placed outside (adult) political, economic and social spheres.
