‘Children’s agency’ and ‘children as social actors’ have become taken for granted in much social science research (James 2009). In studies on childhood, agency has been accepted as a universal feature of what it means to be a child, and in international development, ‘children’s participation’ is an increasingly accepted principle (Vandenbroeck and Bouverne-De Bie 2006). In development, the notion of ‘empowerment’ suggests that power is something that can be bestowed on individuals or grou...