Agency and participation as determinants of social capital in Gombe Children’s Theatre Project

Abstract

Methodological flexibility and substantive creativity are important internal dynamics that ensure the development of social capital in children's projects. They help to support cultural and sensory spaces to ensure that children participate equitably in projects. This paper aims to foreground how agency and participation, which ostensibly nurture social capital, were handled through purposeful creativity. It uses Gombe Children's Theatre Project (GCTP) as a case study. Its goal is to explore the realization of children's social capital by using Local Human Development (LHD) and Child's Rights Convention (Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989) as theoretical approaches to evaluating the project. Among other findings, the study reveals that agency and participation are determinants of social capital. The success is due to the effective conditions that provided such response to collective consolidation. In a dysfunctional social system, it is difficult to knit the confidence of different stakeholders to produce a noticeable positive outcome. However, the Children's Theatre Project has provided a participatory framework giving the stakeholders full control. The issue in question is of value for all the project participants, therefore, it is necessary to provide a freer space where the students could address the challenges typical for their schools. This lacuna is the result of limited time available to the university and school students alike.