TY - JOUR
T1 - Re-thinking children’s agency in extreme hardship
T2 - Zimbabwean children’s draw-and-write about their HIV-affected peers.
AU - Campbell, Catherine
AU - Andersen, Louise
AU - Mutsikiwa, Alice
AU - Madanhire, Claudius
AU - Skovdal, Morten
AU - Nyamukapa, Constance
AU - Gregson, Simon
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - We compare two analyses of the same ‘draw-and-write’ exercises in which 128 Zimbabwean children represented their HIV-affected peers. The first, informed by the ‘New Social Studies of Childhood’, easily identified examples of independent reflection and action by children. The second, informed by Sen׳s understandings of agency, drew attention to the negative consequences of many of the choices available to children, and the contextual limits on outcomes children themselves would value: the support of caring adults, adequate food, and opportunities to advance their health and safety. Conceptualisations of agency need to take greater account of children׳s own accounts of outcomes they value, rather than identifying agency in any form of independent reflection and action per se.
AB - We compare two analyses of the same ‘draw-and-write’ exercises in which 128 Zimbabwean children represented their HIV-affected peers. The first, informed by the ‘New Social Studies of Childhood’, easily identified examples of independent reflection and action by children. The second, informed by Sen׳s understandings of agency, drew attention to the negative consequences of many of the choices available to children, and the contextual limits on outcomes children themselves would value: the support of caring adults, adequate food, and opportunities to advance their health and safety. Conceptualisations of agency need to take greater account of children׳s own accounts of outcomes they value, rather than identifying agency in any form of independent reflection and action per se.
U2 - 10.1016/j.healthplace.2014.09.008
DO - 10.1016/j.healthplace.2014.09.008
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 25463918
SN - 1353-8292
VL - 31
SP - 54
EP - 64
JO - Health and Place
JF - Health and Place
ER -