COLONIALITY OF ADULTCENTRIC POWER AND/IN THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AND YOUNGS

Abstract

In this article I establish the theoretical base of the racialized construction of adultcentrism that emerges with the colonial/modern intrusion and is (re)configured to the present day. I start from the criticism of the low consideration that decolonial studies have on the existing power relations between adults and non-adults, in order to show that this relationship was also reorganized with the invention of race in colonial modernity and the European invasion of America. Then, I analyze the coloniality of adult-centric power, seeking to delimit its expressions and implications on power, knowledge, being, nature and the rights of children and young people. Finally, I discuss the decolonization of adultcentric power based on the radical detachment of adultcentric discourse from the ideas of immaturity and rational incompleteness, and on the equal valuation of other cultural conceptions of childhood, adolescence and youth, and their reflections on rights and in the State.