Nico Brando
Biographic Data
| ID | 778538 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nico Brando |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nico |
| FAMILY NAME | Brando |
| SIGNATURE | BRANDO N |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1238-2205 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Victimhood and the adaptive agency of child soldiers
Dominant humanitarian and legal discourses homogenise child soldiers as passive and coerced victims. These narratives obscure the complex ways in which child soldiers navigate conflict. Building on contemporary theories of agency, this article proposes an adaptive conception of agency as a conceptual framework for understanding how children exercise meaningful, though constrained, choices under conditions of oppression. Through analysis of divers…
The moral relevance of social categories
What makes the categorisation of a human collective morally relevant? How does the categorisation of individuals into groups affect their social status and treatment? This article provides an account of the moral relevance of social categories and assesses the status of “childhood” within this framework. It distinguishes morally relevant social categories (labelled as social groups) through three conditions: first, individuals are externally ascr…
Capabilities and Linguistic Justice
Language conditions our socio-political world in fundamental ways. How public institutions deal with linguistic diversity, and how they distribute linguistic benefits, has an important impact on an individuals’ life. This article studies the value of language in multilingual environments by evaluating the debate on linguistic justice through the capabilities approach. It studies the value of language to assess what principles of justice are requi…
Voice, Choice, and Action
Is child disenfranchisement justified
Children are among the few social groups that are systematically and universally disenfranchised. Although children are citizens worthy of equal moral treatment and rights, their right to vote is restricted in almost all states, and this is seen as legitimate by most democratic theories. What is particular about childhood that justifies the restriction of their right to vote? How can democratic systems legitimise the exclusion of a section of the…
John Wall, Give Children the Vote. On Democratizing Democracy
Life Under Coronavirus
Children have a right to have their views sought and given due weight on all matters affecting them, including at times of emergency and crisis. This article describes the process and findings of the ground-breaking CovidUnder19 survey (“Life Under Coronavirus”) which was co-designed with children for children, capturing the experiences of over 26,000 children in 137 countries as to the realisation of their human rights during the first six month…
Children's Abilities, Freedom, and the Process of Capability-Formation
When thinking about children's entitlements, priority tends to be given to protecting their well-being achievements, while limiting their entitlement to exercise freedoms and agency. An assumption of “inability” is used as the grounding justification for limiting children's freedom and agency. Using the capability approach (CA) as a method to conceptualise what is owed to individuals, this article shows that the justifiability of restricting free…
Governing as commons or as global public goods
Commons and global public goods have become popular concepts in academic debates on governance. Moreover, these concepts are no longer the exclusive domain of economists. Different disciplines (such as legal and political theory) have appropriated them in their own specific ways. The result of this popularity, however, is that they are often confused or used in ways that muddle their distinct characteristics. In this article we propose some disti…
Universalism, embeddedness and domination
The international community agrees that protecting the needs and interests of children is a fundamental endeavour. However, the road through which this should be achieved is less clear. Should universal norms guide how children's rights are implemented? Or should children's rights be adapted to the particular social environments and cultural traditions in which children are embedded? This article takes the International Convention on the Rights o…
A capability approach to children's well‐being, agency and participatory rights in education
This article applies a capability approach to examine how children's agency, well‐being and participation rights can be developed and supported in educational settings. We introduce Amartya Sen's concepts of agency and well‐being freedoms and achievements to highlight the tensions and trade‐offs between risks to children's agency and well‐being in and through educational processes. We draw upon selected empirical examples to illustrate this relat…
The Right to Secession
The Scottish referendum, and the Kurdish and Catalan endeavours to organise unilateral independence referenda has made secession, once again, a prominent political issue. Understanding what entitles collectives to claim independence, and the conditions required for this claim to be justified are fundamental issues that must be answered for an assessment of legitimate secessionism. This article compares remedial and primary right approaches to a r…
Between equality and freedom of choice
Distributing Educational Opportunities
Education is one of the most unequally distributed goods, and this has led to people’s opportunities in life to differ greatly. Depending on how we conceive the value of education, the duties of the state regarding its distribution vary. This paper looks at the tension between two philosophical approaches to the value of education (individual and positional values), looking for a common ground where to support a more just and efficient distributi…
Children's Abilities, Freedom, and the Process of Capability-Formation
When thinking about children's entitlements, priority tends to be given to protecting their well-being achievements, while limiting their entitlement to exercise freedoms and agency. An assumption of “inability” is used as the grounding justification for limiting children's freedom and agency. Using the capability approach (CA) as a method to conceptualise what is owed to individuals, this article shows that the justifiability of restricting free…
Capabilities and Linguistic Justice
Language conditions our socio-political world in fundamental ways. How public institutions deal with linguistic diversity, and how they distribute linguistic benefits, has an important impact on an individuals’ life. This article studies the value of language in multilingual environments by evaluating the debate on linguistic justice through the capabilities approach. It studies the value of language to assess what principles of justice are requi…
The Right to Secession
The Scottish referendum, and the Kurdish and Catalan endeavours to organise unilateral independence referenda has made secession, once again, a prominent political issue. Understanding what entitles collectives to claim independence, and the conditions required for this claim to be justified are fundamental issues that must be answered for an assessment of legitimate secessionism. This article compares remedial and primary right approaches to a r…
Life Under Coronavirus
Children have a right to have their views sought and given due weight on all matters affecting them, including at times of emergency and crisis. This article describes the process and findings of the ground-breaking CovidUnder19 survey (“Life Under Coronavirus”) which was co-designed with children for children, capturing the experiences of over 26,000 children in 137 countries as to the realisation of their human rights during the first six month…
Governing as commons or as global public goods
Commons and global public goods have become popular concepts in academic debates on governance. Moreover, these concepts are no longer the exclusive domain of economists. Different disciplines (such as legal and political theory) have appropriated them in their own specific ways. The result of this popularity, however, is that they are often confused or used in ways that muddle their distinct characteristics. In this article we propose some disti…
Universalism, embeddedness and domination
The international community agrees that protecting the needs and interests of children is a fundamental endeavour. However, the road through which this should be achieved is less clear. Should universal norms guide how children's rights are implemented? Or should children's rights be adapted to the particular social environments and cultural traditions in which children are embedded? This article takes the International Convention on the Rights o…
Between equality and freedom of choice
Distributing Educational Opportunities
Education is one of the most unequally distributed goods, and this has led to people’s opportunities in life to differ greatly. Depending on how we conceive the value of education, the duties of the state regarding its distribution vary. This paper looks at the tension between two philosophical approaches to the value of education (individual and positional values), looking for a common ground where to support a more just and efficient distributi…
Distributing Educational Opportunities
Education is one of the most unequally distributed goods, and this has led to people’s opportunities in life to differ greatly. Depending on how we conceive the value of education, the duties of the state regarding its distribution vary. This paper looks at the tension between two philosophical approaches to the value of education (individual and positional values), looking for a common ground where to support a more just and efficient distributi…
Between equality and freedom of choice
A capability approach to children's well‐being, agency and participatory rights in education
This article applies a capability approach to examine how children's agency, well‐being and participation rights can be developed and supported in educational settings. We introduce Amartya Sen's concepts of agency and well‐being freedoms and achievements to highlight the tensions and trade‐offs between risks to children's agency and well‐being in and through educational processes. We draw upon selected empirical examples to illustrate this relat…
The Right to Secession
The Scottish referendum, and the Kurdish and Catalan endeavours to organise unilateral independence referenda has made secession, once again, a prominent political issue. Understanding what entitles collectives to claim independence, and the conditions required for this claim to be justified are fundamental issues that must be answered for an assessment of legitimate secessionism. This article compares remedial and primary right approaches to a r…
Governing as commons or as global public goods
Commons and global public goods have become popular concepts in academic debates on governance. Moreover, these concepts are no longer the exclusive domain of economists. Different disciplines (such as legal and political theory) have appropriated them in their own specific ways. The result of this popularity, however, is that they are often confused or used in ways that muddle their distinct characteristics. In this article we propose some disti…
Universalism, embeddedness and domination
The international community agrees that protecting the needs and interests of children is a fundamental endeavour. However, the road through which this should be achieved is less clear. Should universal norms guide how children's rights are implemented? Or should children's rights be adapted to the particular social environments and cultural traditions in which children are embedded? This article takes the International Convention on the Rights o…
Children's Abilities, Freedom, and the Process of Capability-Formation
When thinking about children's entitlements, priority tends to be given to protecting their well-being achievements, while limiting their entitlement to exercise freedoms and agency. An assumption of “inability” is used as the grounding justification for limiting children's freedom and agency. Using the capability approach (CA) as a method to conceptualise what is owed to individuals, this article shows that the justifiability of restricting free…
Life Under Coronavirus
Children have a right to have their views sought and given due weight on all matters affecting them, including at times of emergency and crisis. This article describes the process and findings of the ground-breaking CovidUnder19 survey (“Life Under Coronavirus”) which was co-designed with children for children, capturing the experiences of over 26,000 children in 137 countries as to the realisation of their human rights during the first six month…
Voice, Choice, and Action
Is child disenfranchisement justified
Children are among the few social groups that are systematically and universally disenfranchised. Although children are citizens worthy of equal moral treatment and rights, their right to vote is restricted in almost all states, and this is seen as legitimate by most democratic theories. What is particular about childhood that justifies the restriction of their right to vote? How can democratic systems legitimise the exclusion of a section of the…
John Wall, Give Children the Vote. On Democratizing Democracy
The moral relevance of social categories
What makes the categorisation of a human collective morally relevant? How does the categorisation of individuals into groups affect their social status and treatment? This article provides an account of the moral relevance of social categories and assesses the status of “childhood” within this framework. It distinguishes morally relevant social categories (labelled as social groups) through three conditions: first, individuals are externally ascr…
Capabilities and Linguistic Justice
Language conditions our socio-political world in fundamental ways. How public institutions deal with linguistic diversity, and how they distribute linguistic benefits, has an important impact on an individuals’ life. This article studies the value of language in multilingual environments by evaluating the debate on linguistic justice through the capabilities approach. It studies the value of language to assess what principles of justice are requi…
Victimhood and the adaptive agency of child soldiers
Dominant humanitarian and legal discourses homogenise child soldiers as passive and coerced victims. These narratives obscure the complex ways in which child soldiers navigate conflict. Building on contemporary theories of agency, this article proposes an adaptive conception of agency as a conceptual framework for understanding how children exercise meaningful, though constrained, choices under conditions of oppression. Through analysis of divers…
Political science (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Law and economics (8 works) · Children's Rights and Participation (6 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Economics (5 works)