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Children as Agents of Change for Sustainable Development

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Children and Sustainable Development

Abstract

Children under the age of 15 represented 26 % of the world population (893 million girls, 956 million boys) in 2014. They mainly live in low and middle income countries. Children are exposed to current and future social, economic and environmental sustainability problems, but are also potential agents of change for sustainability, even in childhood. This paper explores how the role of children can be enhanced by transformative education in support of their experiences in discovery, participation, and agency of change. Action-related projects and new information technologies offer opportunities. The tremendous diversity of the living conditions of the world’s children (e.g. related to their age, gender, rural/urban, poor/non-poor, cultural contexts, discrimination and marginality), and the types of children’s respective sustainability problems need to be considered. Experiences with children’s roles as agents of change for sustainability (incl. influence on adults’ behavior) are reviewed, based on educational initiatives related to innovation, environmental protection, consumption, health, water and sanitation, and caring for others. Such actions are to be considered as promising public investments in sustainability. Recognition of children’s potential role as agents of change implies that concepts of investment in education should not just be guided by human capital formation for life-time earnings in markets and by cultural dimensions, but should be expanded by inclusion of externalities of children’s contributions to a sustainable development of societies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Most helpful research support and advice for developing this paper by Katharina Friederike Gallant and Kristina Mensah, both at Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Center for Developmental Research ZEF, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Joachim von Braun

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  1. Joachim von Braun
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Academia Nacional de Educación, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Antonio M. Battro

  2. Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France

    Pierre Léna

  3. The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican City, Holy See (Vatican City State)

    Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo

  4. Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Joachim von Braun

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von Braun, J. (2017). Children as Agents of Change for Sustainable Development. In: Battro, A., Léna, P., Sánchez Sorondo, M., von Braun, J. (eds) Children and Sustainable Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47130-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47130-3_2

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