justice without agents of justice: a critique of adultcentric and aporophobic narratives in liberal theories of justice

Abstract

In recent decades, political philosophy has expanded its analysis of children and poverty as critical categories. However, a theoretical gap persists in examining how liberal theories of justice—hegemonic in the design of public policies and global normative frameworks—reproduce adult-centric (centred on adulthood as the norm) and aporophobic (marked by rejection of impoverished individuals) narratives. These narratives are anchored in the epistemic assumptions of liberalism, such as the linkage between political autonomy and adulthood, as well as instrumental rationality, which function as symbolic structures to naturalise the marginalisation of those who do not meet these standards, particularly children and, even more starkly, those living in poverty. By reducing these subjects to mere passive recipients of assistance, liberal theories not only deny their political agency but also reinforce a dual structure of oppression: adultcentrism, which renders children invisible as legitimate interlocutors in the public sphere, and aporophobia, which stigmatises poverty as synonymous with dehumanisation, reducing individuals to tutored subjects. This logic intersectionally constructs the figure of the ‘inferiorised Other’: impoverished children, excluded due to their age and socioeconomic condition, transformed into «Los nadies» (‘Nobodies’) without voice or political power. In response, the article demonstrates how adultocentrism and aporophobia intertwined within liberal theories of justice, perpetuating exclusions that this study seeks to deconstruct. Faced with this reality, childism is proposed as an ethical-political analytical framework that denaturalises age-based hierarchies and recognises children as rights-bearing subjects with political agency. While childism has been diversely interpreted in academia, here a perspective specifically focused on children in poverty is prioritised, as their realities expose the intersection of systemic oppression and socioeconomic marginalisation. Overcoming these oppressions requires politicising their agency, understanding that they are not merely vulnerable but actors who exercise power through everyday practices of resistance, community organisation, and demands for participation. This necessitates an ontological and epistemological shift that values relational agencies (collective, situated) and redefines justice through non-adult-centric logics. The article concludes with a proposal to dismantle adult-centric and aporophobic narratives from a childist perspective, integrating an approach rooted in deep interdependence and the pluriverse. By rejecting autonomy as an individualistic attribute and embracing it as a relational practice, new pathways emerge for constructing justice systems that not only include children but are co-designed by them. Thus, intergenerational justice cannot be founded on fictions of self-sufficiency but must rest on the explicit recognition of a radical interdependence that intertwines collective responsibilities.