Enhancing the participation of marginalised groups through participatory research processes: children as active agents of change

The concept of participation does not have a unique definition: it is a broad construct, conceived in different ways, which finds its highest normative expression in the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. It represents a legislative framework that protects the rights of children, including the right of all to actively participate in decision-making processes. Article 12 specifically states that children have the right to share their views on issues that affect them and to meaningfully influence experiences and contexts. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development also calls for leaving no one behind, starting from the voice of children, who have to be considered active citizens from an early age. In light of these premises, the contribution intends to present some theoretical reflections on the potential offered by participatory research processes, in particular in supporting agency, empowerment and personal expression of groups of people who usually are little considered and engaged in decision-making and context-transformative processes. A narrative review of the literature aimed at exploring the national and international contributes concerned with the notion of participation in some of its possible meanings, highlighted that participatory research can represent a possible experience capable of including and giving voice to groups of people who are traditionally marginalised or little considered in formal and informal decision-making processes. The literature highlights how, despite the 2030 Agenda and other institutional documents reaffirming the importance of giving voice to all, many groups are still neglected in participatory processes, such as children. Contemporary conceptualisations of childhood allow for children to be conceived as active and competent subjects with agency in determining their lives: this implies changes that have repercussions also on research, favouring the emergence of participatory research methodologies with children. In this sense, children can be involved in the research process, fostering different levels of participation. Participatory research processes can thus represent an experience capable of giving voice even to ‘silent’ groups, those who are little heard and considered in decision-making practices. It can therefore be concluded by stating that by offering spaces for participation and expression to children, also in research processes, it will be possible to increase their empowerment and their awareness of having equal rights, and to feel that they are protagonists in their own life contexts.