Book Review: The Kids Are in Charge: Activism and Power in Peru’s Movement... 132 

 

The Kids Are in Charge: Activism and Power in Peru’s Movement of 

Working Children 
 

Jessica K. Taft (2019) 

New York: New York University Press, 263 pages 
ISBN: 978-1-4798-5450-9 (paperback)  

 

  

Numerous publications in recent years have addressed the issue of children’s 
activism in its diverse dimensions. Various monographs and articles have exposed 

and interpreted working children’s activism, evidencing the significance of power 

relations and inequalities between adults and children for understanding the 

situation in which children find themselves. Is another book dealing with this 
phenomenon necessary? How might it still be possible to provoke fresh reflections 

and discover new paths that guide us towards the protection of working children 

and the transformation of individuals and institutions, and do it in an original 
manner? 

 

The book under review is an excellent example of a positive answer to these 
questions. Among many publications devoted to children’s activism, the book The 

Kids Are in Charge stands out with its narration, target group (children and adults), 

and message advocating for the practice of intergenerational activism. In the 

introduction, the author dedicates the book to both children and adults: “For all the 
kids raising their voices for justice and dignity and all the adults who listen and take 

them seriously” (p. 5). Doing so, she opens the space for intergenerational and 

equal explorations into and reinterpretations of childhood and adulthood.  
 

The construction of the book rests on its two main sections, each featuring aptly 

selected texts framed by the section’s title. The first section, Alternative Visions of 
Childhood, is divided into three sub-sections: Learning with the Peruvian Movement 

of Working Children; Protagonismo and Work: Reimagining Childhood; and Equality 

and Horizontalism: Reimagining Intergenerational Relationships. The second 

section, The Practice of Intergenerational Activism, consists of the sub-sections: 
Teachers, Mothers, or Compañeros: Adult Roles in a Children’s Movement; “The 

Kids Are in Charge” but “Adults Talk Too Much”: The Everyday Dynamics of Age-

Based Power and Struggles for Children’s Dignity; and Citizenship: Transforming 
Individuals and Institutions. 

 

The book examines the movement of working children in Peru, taking the 
experiences of children and adults collaborating with them as a point of departure 

to discuss theoretical aspects, such as the conceptualizations of childhood in 

Peruvian society. The author provides a lively image of working children’s lives that 

challenges the widespread perception of children as vulnerable and dependent on 
adults, instead showing them as activists aware of the inequalities between adults 

and children and the need to challenge these inequalities, proving their agency in 

social, economic and political life. Taft discusses the vital role of adults 
(colaboradores) in the movement, with a major focus on the issue of power 

relations and how they are mitigated in these intergenerational relations. The 



Book Review: The Kids Are in Charge: Activism and Power in Peru’s Movement... 133 

 

impact of the presence of adolescents in the movement how this impacts child-adult 
symmetry is also addressed. The author then goes beyond the movement itself to 

consider its implications for other working children and the existing paradigm of 

childhood, reflecting on the movement’s potential to reform the dominant approach 

to children’s place in communities and the wider society. 
 

Taft probes into the categories of childhood and adulthood, looking at them as age-

based polarities which are sources of both strong identities and inequalities. Her 
book offers an insight into how adults and children within the movement of working 

children see children’s role in the public sphere. It explores how they frame power 

relations between adults and children based on symmetry and egalitarian values, 
while identifying how these assumptions and approaches are translated into 

practice within the children’s movement and their potential to impact children’s 

situation in wider society. 

 
The author concludes each chapter by identifying one of the most important aspects 

of the movement of working children: 1) its eroding impact on the dominant 

conceptualizations of childhood; 2) the challenges faced by working children 
connected with power relations between children and adults; and 3) the impact of 

the movement beyond the scope of its members’ lives.  

 
The book is very well grounded in theory and has immense cognitive value. It deals 

with problems and phenomena historically created through adults’ hands and words 

that have inhibited the praxis of intergenerational activism because they expose 

violations of children’s rights by those who ought to protect them. The author 
emphasizes how important a balanced approach to adults’ role in activism is, and 

that the value of this activism relies on horizontal intergenerational cooperation.  

 
Jessica K. Taft is careful to use the language of equality while at the same time 

drawing attention to the weight of keywords ascribed to the categories and theories 

to which the book refers. For example, analyzing the ideas related to children’s 
equality and intergenerational horizontalism she writes, “I invite readers to consider 

the distance between these visions and their own experiences either as children or 

as adults interacting with children. In what ways do our (adults’) habituated ways 

of engaging with kids deny them their dignity, underestimate their capacities, or 
ignore their insights? Why is thinking about children as equals so unsettling for 

many adults? How would the social and political institutions that structure adult-

child interactions be different if we recognized children’s equality?” (p. 86). These 
are brave questions, highly topical and important today for the popularization of 

this concept in daily practice.  

 

I believe the book has an immense potential to inspire scholars, practitioners and 
readers searching for new issues and fields of exploration that shape childhood and 

children’s rights studies. The author does an excellent job exposing the problems 

with having an incomplete understanding of children’s activism against the 
background of theoretical and research concepts, models and approaches found in 

existing research. She mentions binary representations of children’s activism as 



Book Review: The Kids Are in Charge: Activism and Power in Peru’s Movement... 134 

 

either being manipulated by adults or rejecting any form of adult involvement, 
arguing that neither of these binaries is a valid or effective option.  

 

I also believe the book to be particularly valuable through the perspective of 

contemporary non-discriminatory, participatory research with and on children and 
adolescents within the economic, social and political arenas and in the face of 

climate change. Children not only can become, but in today’s complicated reality 

are becoming key political actors and activists—annoying some adults while 
opening the eyes of others. The book can also be a highly useful read for the 

students of educational and social work studies as well as for raising the 

competences of teachers and other professionals working with children.  
 

Review by Urszula Markowska-Manista 

 

 
Urszula Markowska-Manista, Ph.D. is a field researcher; Assistant Professor at 

the University of Warsaw, Poland; and Co-Director of M.A. Childhood Studies and 

Children's Rights at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam in Germany.