Tacit Notions of Childhood: An analysis of discourse about child participation in decision-making regarding arrangements in case of parental divorce

This article reports on a reconstruction of some major pragmatic presuppositions in recent Dutch and English discussions in scientific media about the say children should have in devising settlements after parental divorce. Pragmatic presuppositions – such views as discussants implicitly assume to be taken for granted by their audience – were interpreted as indicating implicit conventions with respect to conceptions of childhood that underlie explicit discussions. We concentrated on three dimensions of such underlying conventions: the child’s supposed interests in having a say, supposedly required competences for having a say, and the supposed links between and relative priority of the child welfare perspective and the rights perspective in this issue. Closer examination reveals that not all of the presuppositions that appear to be characteristic for the discussion at hand are selfevident.