A future of mess, confusion and complexity? Linking children’s rights and knowledge management in a critical research agenda beyond 25 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provided an ideal opportunity for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to take stock of where we stand with children’s rights. What can we learn from the past quarter century that makes us push the boundaries of today towards an innovative future with more social justice and human dignity for children? Why have efforts to further the realisation of children’s human rights often been fragmented and ineffective, despite the great progress being made in theory and practice? The chapter uses this momentum to address two interrelated dilemmas at the heart of the children’s rights debate: (1) the inherent complexity of children’s rights, which militates against a shared understanding of social problems and their solutions, and (2) the fragmentation of knowledge, which prevents better outcomes in a society where we are ‘information rich and time poor’. To critically address these challenges, the chapter will initiate a dialogue between two research fields that have so far seldom been connected – children’s rights and knowledge management.

ISBN:9789004295049

Publication year:2016

Accessibility:Open