Children’s identities and capacities in process

This chapter looks at some of the issues around children's identity, participation processes and works with children, and so concerns the perceptions and roles of children and adults as well as children's capacity. It also considers issues arising through adult and peer perceptions of their capacity, which were and are often related to perceptions of identity and sometimes raised problems of highlighting or privileging certain aspects of their lives over others. Children's identities are not only multiple but they change over time, particularly as they grow biologically and develop socially and pass through local norms of transition. The reality of children's lives being characterised through particular and often dominant cultural strands provides a framework for participatory processes. Some of the learning about the intermeshing of identities and capacities of children, and as an aspect of process, is outlined here to indicate the variety involved in this dimension, but also how some strands appear to be similar.