This thesis investigates children and young people’s (CYP) and policymakers’ perceptions of childhood, youth and child and youth participation in Thailand, including their experiences of power-sharing in policy decision-making. Specifically, the thesis examines young people’s belief in their influence on policy-making, the main challenges they faced and the solutions they overcame. The investigation followed a case study methodology comparing a national and a local case study. The primary data collection relied on semi-structured online interviews with young people and policymakers. Three child-friendly methods and documentation were employed to foster trustworthiness and promote CYP’s voices in research.
The findings of the two case studies emphasise that the particularities of Thai culture significantly influenced the conceptualisations and perceptions of childhood, youth and CYP. They also further reveal that these constructions were also partly influenced by the diffusion of the minority world’s conceptualisation of childhood. They demonstrate that adults shaped the norms associated with these understandings, reflecting the minority status of CYP and their limited power under adult dominance. The findings relevant to child and youth participation highlight two main themes: young people’s desire to freely express their opinions in line with global trends in child and youth participation and the persistence of cultural norms, particularly within the family and community spheres. The findings also indicate that the perceptions of young people in policy and programme development with policymakers changed throughout the stages of participation. Young people encountered various challenges when participating in policy and programme development, stemming from both personal limitations and structural barriers, but they generally sought to address these challenges by themselves. Interestingly, the two case studies examining CYP’s belief in their influence on policy decision-making produced significantly different results. In the national case study, young people were sceptical about their influence on policy decisions, whereas young people in the local case study strongly believed in their influence on local policy decision-making. Similarly, power was seen as centralised in the hands of policymakers in the national case study but as distributed in the local case study. Despite these divergent understandings of power, policymakers in both cases sought to share power with CYP. Three power-sharing methods emerged from their accounts, and policymakers’ and young people’s perceptions of these differed.
This thesis also uncovers the advantages of involving both young people and policymakers in research, providing a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the relevance of Thailand’s cultural context, including generational differences. It also adds to the existing body of research on the construct of childhood and youth as well as child and youth participation in Thai culture, filling a gap in this area.
