ABSTRACT
The chapter focusses on children's agency from a feminist ethic of care perspective. Drawing on the works of difference-centred theorists, agency is discussed as embedded in specific historic, social and economic conditions, whereby social actors are depicted as participating in various relationships at one time. Starting from this point and drawing on theoretical works of feminist ethics of care (Tronto, 1993), care relations between children and parents are discussed as interdependent. A perspective on responsiveness is the focal point of this study. This approach opens up a one-sided and vertical understanding of children's dependence and adults’ independence, yielding a structural understanding of reciprocity. By examining specific care relationships involving children as young carers, the value of a perspective based on an ethic of care in childhood sociology regarding children's agency is illustrated.
