Call for papers 2027 Volumen 11 (1) Publication: First semester of 2027

Volumen 11 (1)
Publication: First semester of 2027

Childism in the global south: a latin american perspective

Deadline for article submissions: December15, 2026

Co-editors: John Wall, Monique Voltarelli. Childism Institute

In recent decades, the field of childhood studies has made significant contributions to understanding children and adolescents as social, cultural, and political subjects, challenging traditional perspectives that reduced them to objects of protection, socialization, or development. This paradigmatic shift has made it possible to recognize childhood as a social category structured by power relations, inequalities, and generational hierarchies. However, despite these advances, deep and naturalized forms of subordination of younger people persist, limiting their participation, autonomy, and recognition as subjects of rights.

In this context, the concept of childism has emerged as an innovative critical perspective, in analogy to feminism and other critical theories, that enables the empowerment of children by challenging and transforming child-related social norms and structures. Childism proposes a theoretical and political framework aimed at questioning adult-child binaries and hierarchies that underlie children’s systemic oppression, exclusion, and discrimination as children, and promoting transformations toward more just, democratic, and age-inclusive forms of social organization.

Nevertheless, most theoretical developments on childism have been produced in the Global North, particularly in Europe and North America, which limits the understanding of how these dynamics are configured in contexts marked by structural inequalities, colonial legacies, and profound social, cultural, and political diversities, such as those found in Latin America. In this regard, it is essential to promote a situated reflection that explores the specificities of childism in the Region, incorporating critical, decolonial, and intersectional perspectives that allow for a deeper understanding of the multiple ways in which age relations intersect with other axes of inequality, such as social class, racialization, gender, territoriality, and coloniality.

With this monographic Sociedad e Infancias aims to contribute to the development and consolidation of childism as a relevant theoretical, critical, and political perspective for the study of childhoods in Latin America as a component of the so-called Global South. It seeks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue that enables the analysis of age relations, adultist forms of oppression, and the possibilities for transformation toward greater intergenerational justice.

The general objective of this monographic is to explore the theoretical, analytical, and political potential of childism to understand and transform social relations in the Global South.
More specifically, the special issue aims to:
1. Analyze childism as a conceptual framework and critical tool for overcoming children’s systemic subordination and empowering children in the Global South.
2. Examine how age-based power relations manifest across different social spheres, including the family, schools, legal institutions, public policies, digital environments, and everyday life.
3. Explore children’s experiences, practices, and forms of agency, highlighting the strategies through which children and adolescents participate, negotiate, resist, and transform generational structures.
4. Contribute to the development of situated theoretical perspectives by incorporating decolonial, intersectional, and critical approaches that help illuminate the specificities of childism in Global South contexts.
5. Analyze the implications of childism for the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policies, as well as for professional practices in areas such as education, child protection, justice, and social intervention.
6. Use a childist lens to contribute to the production of knowledge that recognizes children and adolescents as subjects of rights, social actors, and legitimate participants in social and political life.