Participation and Situated Inequality in the Institutions of Children’s Everyday Lives

Development of the Concepts ‘Participation’ and ‘Conflicts’

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/irtp.v3i1.167393

Keywords:

conflict, children, education, institutional conditions, participation, situated inequality

Abstract

This article presents the practice research project “Participation and situated inequality in the institutions of children’s everyday lives” and will serve as a foundation for the two subsequent articles. The aim of the present article is to contribute to conceptual clarification and further development of three key theoretical concepts: participation, conflict, and institutional conditions. Based on the project, it is argued, how these concepts are analytically central to understanding the situated dynamics involved in the production of unequal possibilities of participation in children’s everyday lives in and across institutional contexts. The goal is to pave the way for opening the 'black box of inequality' by analysing situated inequality in relation to social situations and connections in complex everyday life.

Author Biographies

Maja Røn-Larsen, Department of People and Technology, University of Roskilde

Maja Røn-Larsen, is an associate professor of Social Psychology of Everyday Life at Roskilde University, Denmark. Her research concerns children in difficulties in the grey area between mainstream and special education across early childhood settings, school, and leisure-time institutions. She has a particular focus on children's perspectives, pedagogical work, interprofessional collaboration, and the institutional conditions that influence these practices. In recent years, her projects have focused on developing a situated perspective on inequality and the dynamics through which institutional arrangements contribute to the production of unequal possibilities of participation in children's everyday lives.

Charlotte Højholt, Department of People and Technology, University of Roskilde

Charlotte Højholt is a professor of Social Psychology of Everyday Life at the Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University. She is engaged in theoretical and methodology development in relation to explore children's everyday lives across contexts of families, schools, kindergartens, institutions for children's leisure time and special help arrangements. This involves analysing children's perspectives and communities, as well as the cooperation between the adults involved. Recently, she has focused on developing a psychological approach to understanding the unequal conditions for participation in social situations in child institutions – conceptualised as situated inequality.

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Published

2026-05-08

How to Cite

Røn-Larsen, M., & Højholt, C. (2026). Participation and Situated Inequality in the Institutions of Children’s Everyday Lives : Development of the Concepts ‘Participation’ and ‘Conflicts’ . International Review of Theoretical Psychologies, 3(1), 324–344. https://doi.org/10.7146/irtp.v3i1.167393

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Theorising Institutions, Culture and Contemporary Challanges