Abstract :
The purpose of this review is to examine agency in the worldwide literature on childrenʹs perspectives on poverty. By definition, asking children about their lives and responses to living in poverty assumes that they are competent actors - this is one of the positive features of the new and burgeoning literature on childrenʹs perspectives. Findings from research in poorer and richer countries are summarised and compared, and childrenʹs agency is categorised using frameworks proposed by Ruth Lister and John Micklewright into a number of different types, including self-exclusion, exclusion of children by other children, ʹgetting by, ʹgetting (back) at, ʹgetting out, and ʹgetting organisedʹ The review concludes with suggestions on where more research is needed on childrenʹs agency in the context of poverty.
