Adultism

A Critical Introduction to Discrimination Against Children
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-4473-7813-6
Verlag: Bristol University Press

Buch, Englisch, 332 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 237 mm, Gewicht: 461 g

Despite global advances in children’s rights, young people are routinely disregarded, overpowered and excluded. This persistent discrimination – known as adultism – permeates family life, education, urban design, legal systems and political discourse.

In this groundbreaking book, the authors provide a comprehensive introduction to adultism from an academic perspective while also emphasising its practical implications. Drawing on rich, real-world examples and research, they analyse it as a systemic form of discrimination, exploring how it evolved and is reproduced through language, institutions and everyday practices.

Timely, accessible and urgent, this book offers a vision for resistance and transformation, outlining how adultism can be challenged – by both adults and young people – to co-create a more equitable future.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Liebel, Manfred

Meade, Philip

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gewalt und Diskriminierung: Soziale Aspekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Altersgruppen Kinder- und Jugendsoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Sozialisation, Soziale Interaktion, Sozialer Wandel

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 What is adultism? A first approach

1.1 How adultism is experienced

1.2 Everydayness of adultism

1.3 How do we understand adultism?

1.4 Interpretations of adultism

1.5 Precursors of the critique of adultism and research approaches

1.6 Childism

1.7 Related terminology

1.8 Advantages and pitfalls of labelling

1.9 Denying adultism

1.10 Historical context

2 Adultism in social practices

2.1 Analysing a social structural principle

2.2 Social subordination of young people in earlier epochs and non-Western societies

2.3 Three institutional pillars of adultism in contemporary Western societies: nuclear family, schooling, law and politics

2.4 Six areas of adult discrimination against young people

3 Building a critical theory of adultism

3.1 State of the theory

3.2 Adultism as a form of discrimination

3.3 Power as the motor of adultism

3.4 Intersectional and social reproduction theory perspectives

3.5 Effects and repercussions of adultism

3.6 Preconditions and evolution of adultism

3.7 Adultism in the legal and moral philosophical debate on children’s rights

3.8 Adultism under pressure of justification

3.9 Young people’s agency as a practical critique of adultism?

3.10 Arriving at a theory of child protagonism

4 Confronting adultism

4.1 Sensitising adults for adultism

4.2 Who speaks for whom?

4.3 Critical adulthood

4.4 Is there an adultism-critical pedagogy?

4.5 Working together against adultism in schools and through alternative education projects

4.6 Countering adultism with children’s rights

4.7 Ways towards non-adultist child protection

4.8 Political participation and voting rights of children

4.9 Promoting generational justice

4.10 Countering adultism in urban areas and design

5 How young people challenge adultism

5.1 Taking the initiative

5.2 Finding a way out of political silence

5.3 Standing up for social justice

5.4 Surviving structural adultism

5.5 International movements of working children and youth

6 Clearing the way towards an adultism-free society

Über Autor(innen)

Liebel, Manfred
Manfred Liebel is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Technical University Berlin and Lecturer on Childhood Studies and Children’s Rights at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

Manfred Liebel is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Technical University of Berlin and Honorary Professor of Intercultural Studies on Childhoods and Children’s Rights at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

Philip Meade is Lecturer in Childhood Studies and Children’s Rights at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and in Child Protection at Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin.