Child Health and
Justice
Call
for Papers for a Special Issue of Dilemata. Journal of Applied ethics
Guest editors: Mar Cabezas & Gottfried
Schweiger (University of Salzburg)
Justice for children and during
childhood and the particular political, social and moral status of children has
long been a neglected issue in ethics, social and political philosophy. The
application of general, adult-oriented theories of justice to children can be
regarded as particularly problematic. Philosophers have only recently begun to
explore what it means to consider children as equals, what goods are especially
valuable to them, and what are the obligations of justice different agents have
towards children.
This special issue aims especially
to combine different disciplinary perspectives and to explore how they can
contribute to a better understanding of the normative foundations that are
needed to improve –both, physical and mental- health during childhood in
general and especially for disadvantaged children.
Interdisciplinary research and
contributions from other disciplines (e.g. public health, economics, psychology,
sociology, law, or education studies) are welcome as long as they also have a clear
connection to the normative questions at hand.
The goal of this Special Issue is to
bring together papers to discuss the following areas of concern:
-The
intersection of health and poverty during childhood and its effects on the
future life course. It is well-studied that health is to a large part
socially determined and that the socio-economic position influences heavily the
health status of both children and adults. Childhood poverty translates into
health problems during childhood as well as in later life. This poses a wide
range of ethical and justice-related problems that are still underexplored. For
example the conviction that health is to large part a life-style choice is
highly problematic for children and also for adults given the knowledge about
the pathways from childhood to adult health. Theories that want to clarify what
we owe each other as a matter of justice have to consider this knowledge more
carefully.
-Conceptualizations
of health of children, especially also the interrelation of such concepts as
mental health and (subjective) well-being. There is still no consensus how
health should be defined and what concepts of it are better fit to guide policy
and action. It has also been seldom questioned if health can or should be
differently defined for adults and children. Furthermore most defini6tions of
health focus still on physical health while mental and emotional health is
still widely undervalued. Childhood is a critical phase both for physical and
mental health and the development for such crucial features as self-confidence
and self-trust.
-The distribution and application of responsibilities to ensure health
during childhood.
If health is not an innate feature of children but to a large extent shaped by
the environment, the social position and the actions of other persons and
institutions, than this implies that different agents can and should be
distinguished that share a certain amount of responsibility in respect to
children’s health. In most discourses two agents are highlighted, namely the
parents and the state and its health care institutions. But besides them other
important agents are involved, for example the food industry or pharmaceutical
companies.
-The access to health as a matter of children’s rights. Children’s rights and also the
right of health have been widely discussed, in particular in the context of the
Declaration of the Rights of the Child. How can such a right be justified and
is there a relation between children’s rights and justice for children in that
respect? Does the framework of (universal) children’s rights offer a fit
framework to guide health policies aimed at children? Also, the relationship
between children’s rights to health and parental rights has to be discussed.
Submission and Schedule
* If you are interested in
submitting a paper, please, send us first an abstract with your proposal.
Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words. The deadline for submitting your
abstract is 30th August 2015.
* Once your abstract is selected,
you could prepare your manuscript according to the following guidelines:
-Accepted languages: English and Spanish.
-Article length: 6000-7000 words.
-Text format: singled-space; 12 point font; underlining should be avoided
(italic is preferred, with the exception of URL addresses); pictures, figures
and tables should be inserted within the text rather than at the end of the
document.
-All manuscripts must be submitted
in electronic format by e-mail. They are to be prepared for anonymous review
and sent as e-mail attachments (.doc, .docx, or .rtf files) to Mar Cabezas (maria.cabezas@sbg.ac.at).
-The deadline for submissions is January 25th 2016 and the
Special Issue will be published in May 2016.
-Heading: Title
of article, name of author, work center, university of origin, etc. Postal
address and email address. Abstract of the article, with a maximum of 150 words
in Spanish and English (for papers written in Spanish). Keywords of the
contents of the article in Spanish and English (for papers written in Spanish).
-Bibliography:
at the end of the work in alphabetical order. Only include publications that
have been used and are cited specifically in the text. Based on the ISO
690:1987, take the following form: surname of author, author's name (both in
lowercase letters), year of publication in parentheses, colon, book title in
lowercase italics, place of publishing and editorial.
-References:
The text of the article references to other works will be made indicating the
author's surname and year of publication (an, if it is the case, the exact page
where the quote is a paraphrase), separated by a comma, in parentheses
(Gewirth, 2003, 20). If a reference contains a number of authors, cited one
after the other separated by a semicolon. If you include several works by the same
author published in the same year, distinguish them with letters (Gewirth,
2003a, 2003b).
The quotations should be in inverted
commas, noting in parentheses below —no-footer— the author's surname, year of
publication and page (Toulmin, 1999, 545-546). If the appointment is longer
than five lines will be presented in the form of bleeding.
-Footnotes: The
text notes and calls are numbered in succession and are situated below.
-Tables and graphs should be accompanied by its corresponding title
and legend and numbered sequentially. The graphics may be submitted computer
generated. Photographs may be in electronic form.
DILEMATA is
a peer-reviewed quarterly e-journal centered on what is known today as
'practical ethics', 'ethics in action', or 'philosophy and public affairs' by
the Institute of Philosophy at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
More information about Dilemata
can be found here: http://www.dilemata.net/revista/index.php/dilemata/about
