Gideon Calder: Is Co-Creation with Children a Good Idea?

'Co-creation' happens when, in the context of the development of something (say, an artefact, project or agenda), those whom the project is 'about' or 'for' are involved from the start. They are involved in a way which genuinely incorporates the distinct perspective of each, and power operates as symmetrically as possible.

Co-creation is typically commended both in ethical terms – so as a good way of treating people – and on the grounds of efficacy: as a distinctly productive way of working. This talk specifically addresses the idea of co-creation with children: its possibility and value.

The talk will begin by identifying two paradoxes which present themselves as soon as we arrive at this idea. It then considers a series of kinds of argument against working with children in this way. The aim is both to head those objections off, but also to show that achieving co-creation (generally, but specifically with children) carries with it more by way of tensions than its proponents might assume. Those tensions are to do both with what co-creation is supposed to be like, and what is supposed to be 'good' about it. In the end, the answer to the headline question will be a qualified, critical 'yes'.

Gideon Calder is Associate Professor of Social Philosophy and Policy at Swansea University, where he leads on postgraduate research for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He has a particular interest in how normative questions, particularly around inequality and disadvantage, arise in, and are tackled through, policy interventions. His eleven books include the co-edited Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children. He co-edits the journal Ethics and Social Welfare, and is Vice Chair of the Social Policy Association. Alongside ongoing interests relating to childhood and co-production/co-creation (separately, and together), he is currently working on a project on methods and political theory with his Swansea colleague Patrick Cockburn.

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