Children as Climate Citizens – Presentism with Long-Term Interests 

Based on her book, Kata Dozsa presents the concept of “children as climate citizens” across three key avenues of participation: climate governance, grassroots youth social movements, and climate litigation. Presentism is a defining feature of children’s climate citizenship: children living today are directly and disproportionately affected by climate change, with immediate and future consequences for their rights, well-being, and everyday lives. At the same time, these experiences are framed within a broader set of long-term considerations: rather than identifying children solely through vulnerability, they are recognised as political and legal actors whose meaningful participation in decision-making and knowledge sharing contributes to sustainability and the protection of democratic values in society.

Political socialisation and the climate crisis

This presentationi instroduces the theoretical basis of the KIDSONCLIMATE project, as well as an update on the fieldwork currently underway. The project aims to explore how the emotions that learning about the climate crisis can elicit in children and pre-adolescents can influence their attitudes towards democracy and their own sense of political efficacy.

To this end, it draws on literature in political science, political sociology, and social psychology to examine the links between emotional responses – particularly feelings of betrayal and distress, hope or commitment – to the climate crisis, and perceptions of the responses of different political actors to this situation. The project focuses specifically on a population of young people described as “average”, neither activist nor apathetic, in order to bring visibility to a group that has been little studied in research on these issues. In particular, it proposes to explore how adults’ views on children’s competence, voices, and legitimacy on these issues can impact the development of forms of political interest, political competence, and feelings of political efficacy among children and young people.

More information and registration: here