How Children and Young People Influence Policy‐Makers: Lessons from Nicaragua

This article describes a participatory research project, which explored four case studies of children and young people's successful political advocacy in Nicaragua. The analysis combined a human rights‐based approach and a human development approach, and included concepts of multiple settings and levels, interrelated participation spaces, children and young people's citizenship, inclusion and exclusion, democracy, advocacy and empowerment. The main problems faced by children and young people seeking to influence policy‐makers were identified as adultism, dependency and lack of accountability. The research identified pre‐conditions, participation spaces and ways of organising for effective advocacy, and facilitation methods that had proved effective. It concludes that children and young people who achieve effective advocacy are generally self‐empowered, but can count on effective adult support and facilitation. They work through coordination with the authorities and not by clashing with them, but need to ensure effective follow up if they want politicians to keep their promises.     

Religion in Social Change and Social Evolution

It is now time to try to pull together some of the themes and questions raised by the contributors to this book. My comments are not intended to settle controversies but merely to offer one more or less coherent opinion. My purpose is to help some readers to see the book as a whole. Other readers will need no help and may find my comments either wrong or nearly self-evident.     

Social Class and Delinquency: One More Time*

The diversity of findings on the class-delinquency relationship may reflect differential middle-class cultural dominance in school systems. In predominantly middle-class schools, the minority of working-class youth conform to the majority standards and the relationship does not hold. In more class heterogeneous schools a cross-class cultural diffusion occurs among youth such that objective class status no longer is predictive of delinquency. In predominantly working-class schools a negative class-delinquency relationship is found; in such a milieu, those youth who are committed to conventional middle-class culture only can have acquired such commitments from their middle-class parents. The self-report studies of class and delinquency are reviewed in the light of these hypotheses.     

Strategic Management of Public Interest Organizations

This paper argues that strategic management of a public interest organization not only needs to be aimed at the interests it represents, but it also has to incorporate the organization's internal workings. The functioning of a public interest organization is seen to suffer from a primary dilemma of membership and influence and a secondary dilemma of representation and control. If these dilemmas are not handled adequately, the public interest organization will suffer from a vicious circle of contradiction and conflict, eventually threatening the organization's long-term viability. A case study is elaborated to empirically underpin this proposition.