Adult trust and children’s democratic participation

This chapter considers the role of played by adult trust in relation to children’s democratic participation. Following an analysis of how discourses of trust in relation to children construct the participating child in different spaces of participation we find a high degree of contingency attends on how trust and distrust are mobilised by adult in relation to children when it comes to including children in decision-making processes. From a participatory perspective we find that where participatory mechanisms are realised through formalised system processes of confidence this can serve in children’s favour but that where adults retain the warrant to override children’s views this is often articulated through questions of interpersonal trust and distrust. Finally, we argue that adults deploy or withhold interpersonal trust in relation to children as a class of person in ways which are akin to early Parsonian formulations of trust within familiar situations which suggests children as a category are held in a web of what could be characterised as ‘pre-modern’ relations to adults as a class.