The network has been actively collaborating since the Key Institutions meeting in Bangkok in December 2002 where it prepared for the Childhoods 2005 Oslo conference. The group presented several papers at the conference in Oslo 29 June to 3 July 2005.
Recently published results
The group has recently published a book, presenting the data from the country studies, "Children's Participation? Learning from Children and Adults in the Asia-Pacific Region" (2009). The book was edited by Jan Mason, Natalie Bolzan and Anil Kumar and published by the Australian Publishing House The Social Sciences. The regional network has also produced a chapter in A Handbook of Children and Young People's Participation edited by Barry Percy-Smith and Nigel Thomas recently published by Routledge (2009).
Former project
Socio-cultural contexts of child participation in the Asia-Pacific region was the title of a collaborative project between Childwatch Key Institutions in Australia, Sri Lanka, China, India and Thailand. The group collaborated in a comparative research project identifying commonalities and differences in the meaning and contexts of child participation in the countries involved in the study. The collaboration has resulted in a published book (The Social Sciences, 2009).
The following Key Institutions took part in the comparative study:
Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre, Western Sydney, Australia
China Youth and Children Research Centre, Beijing, China
TATA Institute for Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
NEREC, University of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka
National Institute for the Child and Family Development, Bangkok, Thailand
Contact information
Jan Mason and Natalie Bolzan at the Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre, Western Sydney, Australia are currently coordinating the regional network.
Jan Mason can be contacted at jan.mason [at] uws.edu.au