Tacit Notions of Childhood: An analysis of discourse about child participation in decision-making regarding arrangements in case of parental divorce

This article reports on a reconstruction of some major pragmatic presuppositions in recent Dutch and English discussions in scientific media about the say children should have in devising settlements after parental divorce. Pragmatic presuppositions – such views as discussants implicitly assume to b...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Childhood (Copenhagen, Denmark) Denmark), 2004-11, Vol.11 (4), p.449-468
Main Authors: Hemrica, Jantine, Heyting, Frieda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child custody
Child Welfare
Childhood
Children
Children's rights
Childrens Rights
Conventions
Decision Making
Denmark
Discourse analysis
Divorce
England
Family studies
Foreign Countries
Parent Child Relationship
Parent-child relations
Parental divorce
Parents & parenting
Participation
Rights
Settlements
Social research
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article reports on a reconstruction of some major pragmatic presuppositions in recent Dutch and English discussions in scientific media about the say children should have in devising settlements after parental divorce. Pragmatic presuppositions – such views as discussants implicitly assume to be taken for granted by their audience – were interpreted as indicating implicit conventions with respect to conceptions of childhood that underlie explicit discussions. We concentrated on three dimensions of such underlying conventions: the child’s supposed interests in having a say, supposedly required competences for having a say, and the supposed links between and relative priority of the child welfare perspective and the rights perspective in this issue. Closer examination reveals that not all of the presuppositions that appear to be characteristic for the discussion at hand are selfevident.
ISSN:0907-5682
1461-7013
DOI:10.1177/0907568204047106