Marit Skivenes (2025)
The Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism (DIPA)
BLOG: Our study uncovers a striking paradox: while Nordic citizens broadly support children’s participation, younger children are still often sidelined-despite the clear mandate of the CRC.
Blog post by Marit Skivenes, Professor at the Department of Government, UiB, and the Director of the Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism (DIPA)
The Nordic countries are widely recognised as global leaders in children’s rights. Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden consistently rank among the top countries for child well-being and protection of child rights. Yet even these child-centric societies have struggles with balancing protection and participation. [1] Could a reason for this be found in a Nordic paternalistic culture? Paternalism is often defined as an intervention towards an individual that is intended “to address a failure of judgment by that individual, and to further the individual’s own good.”[2]
To examine if the Nordic “culture” can tell us something about the challenges in reconciling participation and participation, a study was conducted by Marit Skivenes’ and her colleagues, Ph.D. candidate Frøydis L. Haarberg, Prof. Katrin Kriz, and Post Doc Audun Løvlie, regarding population attitudes across the Nordic region on child participation in a child protection situation.
Read the full blogpost here.
https://discretion.w.uib.no/2025/04/30/the-nordic-culture-for-child-participation/