Latin America is the region of the world with the greatest income inequality, according to the 2019 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, 2019). Social inequalities are related to income and social class, but not exclusively. Social markers such as gender, race/color/ethnicity, and generation have a significant impact on access to rights, leaving some groups more vulnerable to social oppression. Far from operating in isolation, these markers are intersectionally articulated (Piscitelli, 2008) and cumulative (Saraví, 2020).

One of the key figures in this debate is the American scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw (2002), who explains that, while it is true that all women are subject, in some way, to the weight of gender discrimination, so too are other aspects linked to their social identities, such as class, race/color, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation, among others, which establish differences in how groups of women experience discrimination. Vommaro (2019) uses the concept of "multidimensional inequalities" to show how poverty, ethnicity, territory, religion, gender, generation, education, and labor market participation are related to social inequalities.

In practice, some groups are subject to greater oppression and face greater difficulties in accessing their rights. This is the case for children and young people. Therefore, incorporating an intersectional perspective challenges the treatment of childhood and youth as homogeneous groups and invites us to consider, for example, how Black youth and those living in marginalized communities have greater difficulty accessing their rights and are more exposed to physical and symbolic violence than white youth.

The mere observation of how these social markers operate in the reality experienced by children and young people in Latin America is sufficient to justify the work, reflection, and visibility of these dynamics in relation to their daily lives. Furthermore, this situation worsened with the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide in early 2020 and continues to this day (October 2022), although its impact has lessened due to vaccination campaigns. To give a few examples, children and young people had to adapt to using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for work and study, while others lacked access to technological resources or connectivity, creating and exacerbating educational inequalities. Even their usual activities, such as studying and leisure, were limited and precarious. Young people began working more intensively in precarious professions or trades, subject to infection and without prospects for skilled employment, as seen, for example, among app-based delivery workers. Furthermore, young people were blamed for the spread of the disease, which intensified their persecution, harassment, and stigmatization in public and media campaigns.

Nevertheless, young people took center stage and participated in acts of resistance, both in the streets and online. Even with lockdown measures, the cycles and agendas of mobilization that existed before the pandemic could not be interrupted (Vázquez et al., 2021). Various protest cycles that were underway in Latin America before 2019—such as the struggle for democracy in Brazil, the fight for a new Constitution in Chile, and the feminist protests in Argentina—adapted to the new circumstances and found ways to persist. Furthermore, young people contested the right to access healthcare in the public sphere. At the same time, sectors of the so-called "new right" gained prominence, finding opportunities to become more visible in the streets and online. The dynamics of the mobilization brought to the forefront the role of the State, the socio-state management of the health crisis, and the different ways in which it engaged with young people in general, and activists in particular.

Within this framework, hegemonic narratives about childhood and youth and their socializing agents have also been constructed, legitimized, and reproduced from the perspective of rights violations, a perspective that places them in a passive position. These narratives have disregarded the experiences, knowledge, needs, and expectations of social actors considered "dependent" and "immature"—children—as well as those social actors deemed dangerous, apathetic, and defiant.

Contrary to these perspectives, the Working Group on Children and Youth has as its main objective to reflect on, research, advocate for, and raise awareness of the principal problems and potential of children and youth in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Working Group's overall purpose is to contribute critical and contextualized knowledge about children and youth within the framework of new social processes that are repositioning Latin America and the Caribbean in dialogue with global agendas.

In this sense, the Working Group adopts critical positions rooted in the Global South, contributing to the promotion of decolonial, counter-hegemonic practices, mobilization, and the reduction of inequalities. It focuses on processes situated within the Latin American and Caribbean context, which must engage in dialogue with knowledge developed in other regions and historical periods. These critical approaches aimed at transformation involve research processes that examine both the Latin American and Caribbean context and the relationships of subordination of children and youth to adults from a generational perspective.

The proposal presented is a continuation of the one carried out within the framework of the Working Group "Childhoods and Youth", which has a long history in the CLACSO Working Groups program, in which we began to participate in 2007 with different projects.

The 2019-2022 cycle coincided with the arrival of the pandemic, and we have managed to maintain our activities together despite the personal and collective difficulties we faced. Furthermore, we were able to use this exceptional time as a framework for reflection, analysis, and action. Below, we present some arguments that demonstrate the relevance of maintaining and sustaining this proposal, with some updates.

Historically, childhood and youth have been subjected to stigmatization. In the case of children, they have been interpreted and treated as subjects without agency. Young people, for their part, have been criminalized, victims of youthicide and a gradual, insidious form of genocide. Cultural and political hegemonies, as well as the multiple forms of violence that stem from them, have undermined their dignity, amplified their discrimination and exclusion, and manifested themselves in diverse ways throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. In short, the conditions of social vulnerability in which most children and young people in Latin America and the Caribbean live constitute the primary starting point for continuing the task of knowledge production.

These conditions were exacerbated by the pandemic, which, as in other crisis situations, primarily affected the most vulnerable groups. This is why the issue of children and young people, considering the multiple inequalities within these groups, is as urgent today as it has been in other times.

Given this scenario, the GT seeks to positively impact the improvement and understanding of the realities experienced by children and young people in Latin America and the Caribbean, through comparative analysis of contexts; the development of participatory research processes; and the construction of links and direct dialogues with public policies and with actors linked to the state and social management of these social groups in different countries of the region.

To that end, the GT proposes to develop analyses, readings and interventions on the described context from perspectives that alternate between diversification and specialization, which show in conceptual and theoretical terms the value of the systematic study of children and young people as social, cultural, historical and political subjects.

The challenges for the coming period are diverse. The first challenge is to systematize data on children and youth. Another challenge is to make this data visible, as well as the voices of children and youth and the groups they represent. We also intend to contribute to quality training for young people and those who work with children and youth throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Finally, we want to contribute to connecting young researchers with these networks, fostering research projects and raising awareness of their work and results.

To achieve these objectives, we propose the following for the next period:

1- Create and energize a Network of Young Researchers

2- Consolidate the Latin American and Caribbean Observatory on Early Childhood, Childhood and Youth

3- Create the international master's program in childhood and youth

In the new proposal, work is planned on two major epistemic souths: 1) Hegemonies, violence, inequalities, and political and cultural practices of resistance and re-existence, and 2) State, public policies, inequalities, and participation. The question of social, gender, ethnic, class, and generational inequalities will be the subject of a cross-cutting analysis within these two souths.

The epistemic south—Hegemonies, violence, inequalities, and political and cultural practices of resistance and re-existence—is oriented toward the analysis of actions that contribute to transformative processes in pedagogical practice through the development of critical pedagogies and popular education; that contribute to transformative psychosocial processes from the perspective of Latin American social psychology; that contribute to relational and social transformations through political socialization and alternative perspectives on human development; as well as those that contribute to counter-hegemonic practices from the perspectives of culture and communication. We will deepen the analysis of social inequalities based on generational intersections and other multidimensional factors such as gender, migration, ethnicity, and cultural, educational, labor, and territorial differences.

From the perspective of the South, under the theme "State, Public Policies, Inequalities, and Participation," we will analyze youth collective action in its multiple forms of manifestation, organization, and mobilization, as well as youth activism and militancy. We will also address the socio-state production of youth, challenged by the question of social inequalities. The Working Group will explore the emergence of debates and modes of socio-state production concerning youth and children in light of progressive governance models, as well as the rise of the so-called new right in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are interested in mobilizing gender, generational, ethnic-racial, and class perspectives to understand the conditions of emergence and the characteristics of youth mobilization, as well as the differential ways in which subjectivities and identities are constructed among children and young people.

We consider the theoretical approaches described to be a starting point. It will be the development of the work itself in the following period that will allow us to identify developments, expansions, or new perspectives.

The general coordination of the Working Group will be led by Melina Vázquez (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina), María Camila Ospina (CINDE-University of Manizales, Colombia), and Daniel Llanos (Salesian Polytechnic University, Ecuador). Based on the assessment of the Working Group's previous period, we propose maintaining an expanded coordination structure, which complements and optimizes the work of such a large group, with diverse epistemological perspectives across a wide range of activities. This coordination will be made up of some of the former members of the thematic axes, considering their experience, availability and relevance in the area: Sara Victoria Alvarado (CINDE-University of Manizales, Colombia), Pablo Vommaro (UBA-CLACSO, Argentina), Silvia Borelli (PUC SP, Brazil), René Unda Lara (UPS, Ecuador), Diego Beretta (UNR, Argentina), Juan Romero (UDELAR, Uruguay), María Isabel Domínguez (CIPS, Cuba), Olivia Cristina Perez (University of Piauí, Brazil), Cándida Irene Chévez (UCA; El Salvador), Lina Cardona (CINDE-University of Manizales, Colombia) and Carla Rosales (CONICET-UNC, Argentina).