Dependency Rights, the Right to an Open Future, and Education (Poster 38)

• In Event: Friday Poster Session 9:35 am
  In Poster Session: Division G: Policies Mattering and Praxis Poster Session

Abstract

Developed by Joel Feinberg, “The right to an open future” calls for parents and the state to protect their children’s rights now so that they may enjoy maximal future options. I argue that previous interpretations of the right have failed to account for children’s rights related to their dependence on others, i.e. their dependency rights. Exploring these rights and the social conditions that influence them reveals important attributes of an open future that former conceptions do not consider. I argue that education is a dependency right and show that it reveals how the right to an open future requires the need for children to be critical of systems of power to open up options for themselves and future generations.

Author

• Alex Moon, University of Pennsylvania