Abstract
This chapter argues that while making the link between children, their politicization, and well-being is a complex task, at the centre of it lies the need to analyse the dynamics of children as social actors, the presence of politics in their lifeworlds, and the conditions under which they can contribute as political actors in their childhoods and later in their adult lives. Using a dynamic approach to questions of politicization and political action and reframing children as social actors, we argue for the importance of the significance of historicity and materialist relations in the formation of political consciousness. We show how analyses of children as political agents must be located in their own experiences of the world, and especially their experiences with the contradictions they encounter. We examine what kinds of environments enhance their political well-being and which are highly inhibitory or even detrimental.