Agents of future promise: the ideological use of children in culture and politics (Britain and France, c.1880-c.1950)

How active are children in politics? They don't vote. They rarely support political parties. They seem untainted by political mudslinging, unsullied by the warmongers' guilt. Rather, they appear innocent, vulnerable and passive. Yet they are political. They carry upon their shoulders the hopes of nation, region, religion, society, family. In this latent potentiality, they sit at the heart of adults' projections of new futures, whether at moments of violence and revolution or within the quest for peace and stability.

Since childhood was 'invented' in Britain, Europe and beyond, adults have made use of children at an individual and collective level to promote their own notions of the future. Children bear the burden of social expectations: they are 'agents of future promise'. While this research project seeks to examine children and ideology in the Western past, it also begins to think about how children are still being ideologically used in the contemporary world. Through our collaboration with external partners, we will start to examine how past insights can influence present practice.

The project is underpinned by three research questions:
1. How have children been ideologically used for political/cultural purposes?
2. Why have they been used like this?
3. How can we better understand the consequences of this instrumentalisation?

We will complete three case studies comparing societies, time and place, and using historical and archaeological methodologies. Using Britain and France in cross-national comparison reveals the sharp differences in the relationship between children, family and state in a monarchy and a republic, at key moments of nation-building, domestic and international conflict, and reconstruction. King will analyse the way that children featured in projections of new futures towards the end of the Second World War and into the postwar era in Britain. Two further case studies will emerge in direct comparison to the PI's research. Crewe will examine children's material culture in Britain from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century and the way that it mobilized ideologies of gender, empire and war. Dodd's work focuses on the role assigned to French children (1940-1944) as mobile agents of national unity, tasked rhetorically and practically with healing national political divisions. The conclusions drawn from the three case studies will be compared and disseminated, and then written into a History & Policy paper in order to bring the question of the ideological instrumentalisation of children to the attention of policy makers.

A key objective of the project is the cross-sector conference, held towards the end of the project. The conference seeks to assemble a network of academic researchers and policymakers, NGO, education and museum practitioners, all concerned with childhood whether in terms of education, health, welfare or culture. Through the presentation of research and practice, roundtable discussions and ideas generation, we will prepare the ground for future projects that put research on the past into the service of practice in the present.

The project contributes to the burgeoning historical debate on childhood and youth in the past. It also seeks to raise awareness of the ideological use of children (gendered, political, religious, commercial). By establishing ways in which we can work better with practitioners who can make good use of our insights from the past, the research will have benefits for children's wellbeing in the future.

The potential impact of the research is substantial and significant. In investigating historical patterns of the use of children to represent notions of the future and the implications for children themselves, the project will be of interest to groups concerned with the welfare of children. The project team are in conversation with a number of such bodies, including our partners, Save the Children and War Child, as well as Barnardo's, Action for Children, the Imperial War Museum, V&A Museum of Childhood and the National Trust Museum of Childhood. We are working with History & Policy, and in particular their Forum on Parenting, to help initiate conversations with policy makers and shapers. The support of History & Policy, which has long-standing expertise in generating effective exchange between policy professionals, journalists and those involved in historical research, will ensure the potential impact of this research is maximised in policy circles.

Two key outputs will be crucial to maximising the impact of this project, a cross-sector conference and a policy paper for History & Policy, co-written by the project team. Our conference, bringing together researchers and representatives of charities, NGOs and policymakers within government with academic researchers, will open up new spaces for impact. In particular, half a day of the conference will be dedicated to reviewing our draft H&P paper and eliciting responses from participants, allowing for a deep dialogue about our findings. The expertise of our non-academic participants will allow us to redraft and further develop our policy paper to maximise its potential impact amongst NGO and government bodies, and amongst other practitioners in this field. The conference will be hosted by History & Policy at King's College London. By using their expertise and extensive network of contacts within the media and in Whitehall and Westminster, we will maximise the involvement of professionals from sectors other than academia. The London venue will also help ensure this, as it is a core location for policy organisations within and outside government, and has easy access to Paris for French counterparts who we will invite to the conference. The responses from participants will feed into the final policy paper, which will be published by H&P soon after the conference and also disseminated widely via our partners and stakeholders.

Our partner Save the Children brings important expertise as an international leader in campaigning on children's issues. It will help shape our thinking around the project's potential impact, and will benefit from a deeper understanding of the use of children in imagining futures, and the consequences for children. Save the Children will connect us to networks and contacts, and disseminate our findings. Our second partner War Child UK also has an international reach, and a specific remit to aid children in conflict/post-conflict zones. Its practical expertise on the ground where children are being instrumentalised will give insight into the practical application of our research. War Child will benefit from linking in to broader policy-related networks through this project, and through the prospect of future research collaborations. Both organisations instrumentalise children within their advocacy and activity; this project will provide opportunities to reflect constructively on their own deployment of children as 'agents of future promise'.

The research team has a great deal of experience of working with external collaborators and audiences, and this will help ensure the potential of this aspect of the project. Furthermore, our Policy Adviser will be employed to take on the administrative role in building up relationships in this area, and to bring expertise and contacts from their work at History & Policy.The time of the Policy Adviser will also be used to evaluate the impact of the project.