ABSTRACT
An easily overlooked type of participation are participants by default. Children are often brought to protest events or political meetings by parents or caregivers, without any expectation of their awareness or involvement. This is an interesting position for children as they may or may not be drawn into participation in a more active way, either to embrace or reject the social movement activities that they are directly or indirectly exposed to, as the many case studies in the chapter exemplify. The adults who have brought these children along may not be averse to their children becoming aware of the messages of the movement. However, if organizers have not involved them in any strategic way, these child participants remain in the movement by default. They may even be oblivious of the political aspects of their experience, remembering only social aspects. Yet their physical presence places them within movement activities, if only as close observers. Their images may be used later by movement organizers in a strategic way or simply remain as unacknowledged persons in a photograph of movement events.
