Bray, Daniel, and Nakata, Sana (2024) Thinking with Children: Climate Change and the Democratic Politics of Renewal and Risk. Journal of Applied Youth Studies. (In Press)

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Abstract

Climate change poses serious political challenges to liberal democracies arising from the problem of short-termism and the priority accorded to the vested interests of present adults over the vulnerabilities of children and future generations. This article aims to analyse the justifications, benefits, and policy implications of centring children in climate change politics in order to overcome these problems. The central argument is that ‘thinking with children’ introduces a normative vantage point for tackling climate change based on taking responsibility for future harms. Such a vantage point also produces new sites of contestation shaped by adult representations of the renewal and risk embodied in children. First, we outline what ‘thinking with children’ means for democratic politics, focussing on how child-as-method approaches centre the injustices faced by children and youth and the implications for the renewal of democracy. We then analyse how this normative shift to centre children addresses the problems of vested interests and short-termism by de-naturalising present adult interests, foregrounding impacts on young people as the future demos, and giving long-term priority to the affectedness of future generations. Finally, we analyse the policy implications that thinking with children offers, using a recent landmark court case in Australia to propose independent legal standing for children in public interest cases and the introduction of Child Impact Assessments in climate policymaking.

Item ID:	86007
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2204-9207
Copyright Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Date Deposited:	01 Jul 2025 01:38
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4408 Political science > 440811 Political theory and political philosophy @ 50% 48 LAW AND LEGAL STUDIES > 4802 Environmental and resources law > 480202 Climate change law @ 50%
SEO Codes:	19 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS > 1902 Environmental policy, legislation and standards > 190206 Institutional arrangements @ 50% 23 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 2304 Justice and the law > 230406 Legal processes @ 50%
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