International Journal of Children’s Rights 16 (2008) 369–378 © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2008 DOI 10.1163/157181808X 311204 www.brill.nl/chil Learning from Political Sociology: Structure, Agency and Inclusive Governance* herese O’Toole Lecturer in Sociology, University of Birmingham Richard Gale Research Fellow in Sociology, University of Birmingham Abstract In this article, we consider the inclusion of children and young people in participatory governance processes. Whilst limitations are often evident in such processes, we argue that even participatory opportunities that are provided by the state and regarded as spaces into which citizens are invited can be “conquered by civil society demands for inclusion” (Cornwall and Coelho, 2006: 1). To this end, we suggest a practice-based and diachronic approach to studying the interactions between participatory structures and children and young people’s agency. Being attentive to the agency of children and young people, and adopting a more diachronic approach to evaluating participatory initiatives, point to the possibility, we suggest, of seeing these relationships unfold in sometimes unexpected ways. Keywords participatory governance; strategies and tactics; habitus Introduction here is increasing attention on children and young people’s democratic participa- tion in recent years, reflected in moves towards greater consultation with, and inclusion of, children and young people in local governance and public service provision. Whilst the inclusion of children and young people in democratic proc- esses may be in part driven by crisis narratives concerning fears of rising electoral and civic disengagement (Pirie and Worcester, 2000) and political disaffection (Cantle, 2001), it is also prompted by the recognition that children and young people constitute important and distinctive rights-bearers and stake-holders. here have been a variety of international and national policy statements articulating this, such as the UNCRC, which forms an important reference point for standard * ) his article draws on a research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, entitled Political Interest and Engagement among Ethnic Minority Youth. he authors would like to express sincere thanks to the Leverhulme Trust for their support.