Alter-Childhoods: Biopolitics and Childhoods in Alternative Education Spaces
2014; American Association of Geographers; Volume: 105; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/00045608.2014.962969
ISSN1467-8306
Autores Tópico(s)Spatial and Cultural Studies
ResumoAbstractIn this article, I consider "alter-childhoods": explicit attempts to imagine, construct, talk about, and put into practice childhoods that differ from perceived mainstreams. I critically examine alter-childhoods at fifty-nine alternative education spaces in the United Kingdom. I analyze alternative education spaces through the lens of biopolitics, developing nascent work in children's geographies and childhood studies around hybridity and biopower. I focus on two key themes: materialities and (non)human bodies; intimacy, love, and the human scale. Throughout the analysis, I offer a limited endorsement of the concept of alter-childhoods. Although there exist many attempts to construct childhoods differently, the "alternative" nature of those childhoods is always muddied, complicated, and dynamic. Thus, the concept of alter-childhoods is useful for examining the biopolitics of childhood and for children's geographers more generally—but only when considered as a critical tool and questioning device.我将于本文中考量 "改变童年":一种将童年想像、建构、诉说并实践为不同于一般理解的主流的明确尝试。我批判性地检视英国五十九个另类教育空间中的 "改变童年"。我透过生命政治的视角,分析另类的教育空间,发展儿童地理学与儿童研究围绕着混杂性与生命政治的晚近研究。我聚焦下列两项核心主题:物质性与(非)人类身体;亲密性、爱与人类尺度。在整个分析中,我对 "改变童年" 此一概念做出有限的支持。儘管已有以不同的方式建构童年的诸多尝试,但这些童年的 "另类" 本质,却总是浑浊、复杂且动态的。因此,"改变同年" 的概念,对于检视童年的生命政治以及更广泛的儿童地理学而言是有用的——但仅可被视为批判性的工具与质问手段。En este artículo me ocupo de las "infancias-alteradas": intentos explícitos de imaginar, construir, discutir y poner en práctica infancias que difieren de lo convencionalmente percibido. Con enfoque crítico examino infancias-alteradas en cincuenta y nueve espacios educativos alternativos del Reino Unido. Los espacios alternativos los analizo a través de la lente biopolítica, desarrollando trabajo reciente en las geografías de los niños y estudios de la infancia alrededor de la hibridad y el biopoder. Mi preocupación está centrada en dos temas claves: materialidades y cuerpos (no)humanos; intimidad, amor y la escala humana. A lo largo del análisis ofrezco un apoyo limitado al concepto de las infancias-alteradas. Aunque se registran muchos intentos de construir de manera diferente las infancias, la naturaleza "alternativa" de esas infancias es siempre empañada, complicada y dinámica. En consecuencia, el concepto de infancias-alteradas es útil para examinar la biopolítica de la infancia y de manera más general sirve a los geógrafos interesados en los niños—pero únicamente cuando se le considera como una herramienta crítica e instrumento de interrogación.Key Words: children's geographiesemotion and affectgeographies of alternative educationhybrid childhoodsthe body关键词:: 儿童地理学情绪与情感另类教育地理混杂的童年身体Palabras clave: geografías de los niñosemoción y afectogeografías de la educación alternativainfancias híbridasel cuerpo AcknowledgmentsI am very grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their patient, constructive, and generous comments, as well as to Richard Wright for his editorial guidance. Thank you to several colleagues who commented on earlier versions of this article: John Horton, Jessica Pykett, Jenny Pickerill, Pauliina Rautio, and participants at the Hybridity in Childhoods Conference, Leeds (UK), April 2014.Notes1 Given that my observation is simply that geographers working on alternative milieu have rarely engaged with alter-childhoods (compared with much work on food, economies, housing, etc.), I do not review work on the third field listed here. Rather, I direct readers to Longhurst (Citation2013) for an excellent overview.2 For recent overviews of children's geographies scholarship, see Holloway and Pimlott-Wilson (Citation2011) and Kraftl, Horton, and Tucker (Citation2012).3 The UK National Curriculum only applies to England and Wales. Scotland has its own Curriculum for Excellence.4 Given that the research took place over a period of ten years, it was subject to ethical scrutiny via a series of institutional ethical review panels, the details of which there is not space to include here. All of the research—especially that with children—followed well-developed protocols recommended in the United Kingdom (for instance, by the ESRC's Framework for Research Ethics, at http://www.esrc.ac.uk/about-esrc/information/research-ethics.aspx), covering issues such as informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, disclosure, and withdrawal. Except where stated, names of individuals and places are pseudonyms.5 Kilquhanity Democratic School is located in southwestern Scotland. It is modeled on the much better known free school at Summerhill, where education—like all aspects of daily life—is negotiated by adults and children on a more or less equal footing.6 The National Health Service provides free health care (at the point of entry) to UK residents. The National Trust is one of the largest UK conservation charities and recently developed a campaign for "Natural Childhoods" (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/what-we-do/big-issues/nature-and-outdoors/natural-childhood/).7 To gain a sense of the diversity of Free Schools in the United Kingdom, readers might be interested in consulting a list of those schools open by early 2014: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-schools-successful-applications-and-open-schools-2014.
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