Something I’d note is that the separation of “children” and “adults” is a pathology of current society. We sort of need it for a number of reasons, but one of those is that we routinely exploit adults, and a while back, the western world decided not to do that for children. This has caused a social disconnect between the hobbies of children and the hobbies of adults, but even in recent modernity, there was no such divide. I think it’s good to think of third places overall, rather than being “for” specific audiences. Everyone is part of society, so third places are for everyone.
In any functioning society, the children live communist lives. Free food, free housing, free education, free medicine. The primary job of children is to educate themselves and become well rounded individuals.
A lot of people also think that childhood was the last time they had safety and freedom. Look at the popularity of high school settings in Japanese media. This is because adulthood in Japan is capitalist and therefore garbage. Japanese people have a much easier time believing a character can have a fun and interesting life if they live under communism.
Also read recently that people in the US don’t think of a particular year group (eg: 1950, 1970s) as being “the best” but a particular age. That is, everyone wants to return to an age where they were basically early - mid teenagers.
I largely agree but I think you are missing a key point here which is that most minors have little to no decision-making power in their own lives and in society. A direct consequence of this is that their needs often go unconsidered and unmet.
A classic example of this is car-centric design. Most people just don’t think about how difficult it is to get around without a car, and even when confronted by this, they will flippantly reply that everyone should just buy one. But children aren’t allowed to drive, and in a neighborhood where you have to drive to go anywhere, children are practically prisoners in their own homes.
For this reason, I think it’s important to call out the needs of young people explicitly, even though many of these needs overlap with those of adults. I think in a solarpunk society they will be empowered to speak for themselves more vocally but until such time it helps to speak for them.
Yes, actually this is what I’m trying to say. Young people become an underclass and we disconnect from them, and this includes their rights. Thanks for making it explicit, but yeah one of the things I’m saying is that we ought to really consider the cases when children have to forego certain rights, and connect that to community so they effectively get those rights back, a sort of liberty through pedagogy / the “informed” part of informed consent.
Something I’d note is that the separation of “children” and “adults” is a pathology of current society. We sort of need it for a number of reasons, but one of those is that we routinely exploit adults, and a while back, the western world decided not to do that for children. This has caused a social disconnect between the hobbies of children and the hobbies of adults, but even in recent modernity, there was no such divide. I think it’s good to think of third places overall, rather than being “for” specific audiences. Everyone is part of society, so third places are for everyone.
In any functioning society, the children live communist lives. Free food, free housing, free education, free medicine. The primary job of children is to educate themselves and become well rounded individuals.
A lot of people also think that childhood was the last time they had safety and freedom. Look at the popularity of high school settings in Japanese media. This is because adulthood in Japan is capitalist and therefore garbage. Japanese people have a much easier time believing a character can have a fun and interesting life if they live under communism.
Also read recently that people in the US don’t think of a particular year group (eg: 1950, 1970s) as being “the best” but a particular age. That is, everyone wants to return to an age where they were basically early - mid teenagers.
I largely agree but I think you are missing a key point here which is that most minors have little to no decision-making power in their own lives and in society. A direct consequence of this is that their needs often go unconsidered and unmet.
A classic example of this is car-centric design. Most people just don’t think about how difficult it is to get around without a car, and even when confronted by this, they will flippantly reply that everyone should just buy one. But children aren’t allowed to drive, and in a neighborhood where you have to drive to go anywhere, children are practically prisoners in their own homes.
For this reason, I think it’s important to call out the needs of young people explicitly, even though many of these needs overlap with those of adults. I think in a solarpunk society they will be empowered to speak for themselves more vocally but until such time it helps to speak for them.
Yes, actually this is what I’m trying to say. Young people become an underclass and we disconnect from them, and this includes their rights. Thanks for making it explicit, but yeah one of the things I’m saying is that we ought to really consider the cases when children have to forego certain rights, and connect that to community so they effectively get those rights back, a sort of liberty through pedagogy / the “informed” part of informed consent.