ACYIG Blog

Children as Political Subjects in the Age of Uncertainty

by Seran Demiral (Boğaziçi University, Primary Education & at Kadir Has University, City and Children Studies)

In our contemporary world, certainty has left its place to flexibility, adaptability and willingness to change (Lee 2005:19). A new sociology of childhood addresses children’s agency to debate child ‘beings’ as both individuals for their own lives and social actors to affect the world. At that point, agency matter is discussed through other concepts, like subjectivity and/or competency. Bollig and Kelle (2016:37) claim that “the acting subject or the competent actor is replaced with a concept of participation in practices.” It is obvious that not only globalization but also digital technologies have changed our culture so that “from a global perspective childhood culture is becoming more homogenized” (Prout 2005:29). Besides, politics and childhood movements all over the world have become similar, especially during this decade.

Atlas Sarrafoğlu, Greta Thunberg, Selin Gören respectively[1]

 

Children can be aware of what happens in other places of the world and how their peers live. As it is known that Greta Thunberg has become an enormous inspiration for many children and young people from different countries, for instance, Atlas Sarrafoğlu gave a start for children’s climate activism in Turkey. Atlas was also honoured by the 2020 WWF International President’s Youth Award (BIA 2020), which is an indicator that childhood movements can be seen by institutions and authorities. After several months of children’s first universal school strike, Atlas and another young activist from Turkey, Selin Gören, attended the “Smile for Future summit” in Lausanne, Switzerland. Their meeting might have affected Greta’s sensitivity about ecologic resistance in Canakkale, so that she said, “Ida Mountains belong to us all” in Turkish (BIA 2019).

Trafalgar Square, London. Extinction Rebellion cover it with children’s shoes in protest against climate change – Copyright  Anthony Jarman[2]

 

In this age of uncertainty due to unexpected viruses to ecological issues, it is only possible to struggle against emerging crisis via extraordinary perspectives by new generations. Today’s children as “naturally adept users of technology” (Prout 2005, 119) are more competent to use ICT effectively to access and re-create knowledge. Despite arising inequalities between children with different experiences upon their socioeconomic background or the country they come from, they have power to be aware of all matters in the world by means of spending time online, and there is a potential for them to unite via online platforms. For example, there is an association for children: XR Kids, who are related to a universal activist group, Extinction Rebellion (XR) whose latest statement is “COVID today Climate tomorrow Act now” (Campbell 2020).

Furthermore, Atlas might have learned about the XR movement from Omer Madra, who has also been a part of this global movement. In a climate conference in Istanbul, Turkey, he was one of the speakers. There was also a section for children (The Green Thought Association 2019). It is quite important to influence children to start an action for the world they will survive. During the lockdown process and the beginning of online education, children’s digital activism and possibilities to develop new strategies for a childhood movement have also been argued through various writing and commentaries; for instance, I discussed children’s potentials to create organizations at the micro-level (Demiral 2020:65) by referring to Janusz Korczak’s heritage on children’s rights and participation.

Elsie Luna, the founder of XR Kids, said “I dream of a world free of racism, adultism, ageism, sexism, disablism, and classism” in her interview with Sarrafoğlu (2020). Besides, Elsie states that homeschooling gives her “more time to study activism-related things. In a way, it’s like striking every day!” which shows us children’s perspectives as flexible, willing to change the circumstances through digital activism. Therefore, the effects of coronavirus and online education/learning as mandatory may cause new opportunities for children and young people to develop. The disadvantages of homeschooling used to be seen as the insufficient socialization, whereas, it is quite possible to socialize and gathering through digital spaces in our contemporary world, which has already become a usual habit for youngers.

“Declaration of XR Kids[3]”

 

As an inspiring example, a small-sized collective community, ‘Extinction Rebellion Kids’ is able to benefit from the aspects of the digital world. The manifesto by XR Kids (2020) demands change to handle the challenges their generation has faced and not to be underestimated because of their age, indicating, “We 8-12 year-olds are more than capable of creating mass systematic change.” In conclusion, children have awareness and feel competent to change the world. Therefore, we as researchers in childhood studies should remember to take children seriously and recognize children as political subjects.

 

References

Bollig, Sabine, and Helga Kelle

2016 Children as participants in practices: the challenges which practice theories pose to an actor-centred sociology of childhood.” In Routledge research in education: Vol. 161. Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood: New Perspectives in Childhood Studies, edited by Florian Esser, Meike S. Baader, Tanja Betzand Beatrice Hungerland, 34-47. London and New York: Routledge.

Demiral, Seran

2020 “Visible, more than Ever: Unequal Childhoods in Istanbul during COVID-19.” In WHAT WOULD KORCZAK DO? Reflections on Education, Well-being and Children’s Rights in the Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic, edited by Anna Odrowąż-Coates, 58-69. Warsaw: The Maria Grzegorzewska University.

Lee, Nick

2005 Childhood and Society: Growing up in an age of uncertainty. 3rd Edition. Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University.

Prout, Alan

2005 The Future of Childhood: Towards the Interdisciplinary Study of Children. London and New York: Routledge Falmer.

Internet Sources

BIA News Desk

2019 “Message from Greta Thunberg: Ida Mountains Belong to us All.” Accessed August 21, 2020. http://bianet.org/english/environment/211516-message-from-greta-thunberg-ida-mountains-belong-to-us-all

BIA News Desk

2020 “Climate Activist Atlas Sarrafoğlu Wins WWF International Youth Award.” Accessed August 21, 2020 http://bianet.org/english/youth/224581-climate-activist-atlas-sarrafoglu-wins-wwf-international-youth-award

Campbell, Maeve

2020 “Thousands of Kids’ Shoes Appear in London Square as a Form of Protest.” Accessed August 21, 2020 https://www.euronews.com/living/2020/05/19/thousands-of-kids-shoes-appear-in-london-square-as-a-form-of-protest

Sarrafoğlu, Atlas

2020 “Elsie Luna: Ecological breakdown has already started [Climate Generation Talks-4]” Accessed August 21, 2020 https://yesilgazete.org/blog/2020/02/26/elsie-luna-ecological-breakdown-has-already-started-people-are-already-dying-climate-generation-talks-4/

The Green Thought Association [Yeşil Düşünce Derneği]

2019 “Climate Conference” http://yesildusunce.org/en/climate-conference/

XR Kids Instagram page: extinctionrebellionkids

2019 “Declaration of XR Kids” Accessed August 21, 2020 https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Ua_j7HIWb/

[1] The source: https://twitter.com/AtlasSarrafoglu/status/1159157981252075521?s=20 (from Atlas’s public account on Twitter)

[2] The source of the photograph: https://www.euronews.com/living/2020/05/19/thousands-of-kids-shoes-appear-in-london-square-as-a-form-of-protest

[3] The source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Ua_j7HIWb/  from the public account of XR Kids on Instagram.

For more information or discussion:

https://www.instagram.com/serandem/

https://www.facebook.com/serandem

https://twitter.com/serandemiral

https://mimarsinan.academia.edu/SeranDemiral

Announcements

Anthropology of Childhood and Youth Interest Group (ACYIG) Statement of Solidarity and Action

The Anthropology of Childhood and Youth Interest Group, part of the American Anthropological Association, condemns the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and all of the many Black individuals violently killed. We stand with and point to the Association of Black Anthropologists’ statement against police violence and anti-Black racism.  As scholars of childhood and youth, we know that racism does untold violence to child and youth lives. As a predominantly white subdiscipline, in a discipline that has been shaped and intimately intertwined with whiteness and colonialism, we also acknowledge our current and historical complicity in Black oppression.

This statement is delayed because we have taken some time to think about what we can concretely do as an organization. We both call for comprehensive equity in the treatment of Black children and youth and commit ourselves to learn more about anti-Black racism and racial disparities in our discipline. Specifically, we commit to:

An Inclusive syllabus project and pedagogy.  Our hope is that through citing and deeply engaging with Black authors and Black communities who are too often silenced, we can help foster coalitional empathy among students and provide space in our classrooms for addressing oppression-based trauma (e.g., trauma from xenophobia, forced displacement, anti-Black racism, etc.) and combatting racial violence in all forms. We will compile suggestions of inclusive syllabi focused on the study of childhood and post these on our website.

A commitment to publishing from NEOS.  At NEOS, we stand in unequivocal solidarity with Black colleagues, students,  practitioners, and communities.  We commit to using NEOS as a platform to center issues of racial (in)justices in the lives of children and youth and to amplify the voices of scholars of color. In our commitment to equity in action, the October 2020 Issue of NEOS will be dedicated to exploring the intersections of childhood and health and we will prioritize submissions that attend to issues of racism and inequities in health, healthcare, and well-being. We also commit to the creation of a new standing column in NEOS dedicated to racial equity and the dismantling of white supremacy, which will be catalyzed by an April 2021 Special Issue on anti-Black racism, racial brutality, and the unapologetic pursuit of justice.

Recruitment and representation.  We will actively recruit BIPOC board members, as well as presenters in invited sessions and conferences. We are also planning on a number of keynote talks next year, and we are making a concerted effort to address some of the disparities in our field in these public gatherings.

Reflexive Introspection and Analysis. We will set up a committee to examine and report on equity and racism within the study of childhood itself, with suggestions for what we as an organization can do to address these issues.

 

Job Postings

Join the ACYIG Team as Convenor-Elect

We are looking to fill a new ACYIG board member position-Convenor Elect. The Convenor-Elects responsibilities are to attend board and business meetings for a year, shadow the convenor, and help the convenor with tasks as needed. After that year, the convenor-elect will transition to a two-year term as convenor. The Convenor Elect position will begin on July 1, 2020.
If you are interested in this position, please e-mail your CV as well as one to two paragraphs to Elise Berman (eberman@uncc.edu) stating why you would like to become convenor-elect and what you think you can bring to the position. Please be sure to include your name, title, affiliation (academic or otherwise) and email/phone number so that we can respond to you.
If you have any questions about ACYIG committee member duties or the open appointment process, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are happy to answer any questions.
Job Postings

Full-time, Tenure-track Special Collections Librarian, Arne Nixon Center at CSU, Fresno

California State University, Fresno
Henry Madden Library
Assistant/Associate Librarian
Anticipated starting salary: $86,000 annually

The Henry Madden Library seeks a highly motivated, creative and forward-thinking Special Collections Librarian for the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, who will curate the collection and bring it to its full potential as a research collection. This is a full-time, tenure-track librarian faculty position. The successful candidate will collaborate with teaching faculty from multiple disciplines (for example, Art and Design, Art history, English, Creative Writing, and History) to develop high-impact classroom practices and library instruction sessions that advance the University’s goal of excellence in teaching, learning and innovation. Experience with applications to textual analysis, creative writing, illustration, and the history of children’s literature (especially as it relates to racial and ethnic diversity, foreign language materials, LGBTQ+ issues and social justice) is highly desirable. The ANC Librarian serves as an ambassador from the Library to the University and the larger community, finding a balance between the academic purpose of the ANC while using its collections and programs to build relationships in the community to support and expand the Center. The ANC Librarian is an active participant in the shared governance of the library and in the academic life of campus. The successful candidate will be a fully integrated member of the library faculty and will be expected to meet all of the requirements for retention, tenure and promotion, including service to the campus and the community. Tenure-track librarians receive an official probationary plan, mentoring and funding. Specific assignments are dependent on departmental needs and the background of the individual.

Qualifications:
Required Education (from an accredited institution or foreign equivalent.):
1. An earned M.I.L.S (or equivalent) from an American Library Association-accredited institution or program recognized by the American Library Association as an international equivalent.

Required Experience

  1. Three to five years professional experience as a special collections librarian.
  2. Minimum of one year of professional experience providing research, reference and instruction support in an academic or research environment.
  3. Minimum of one year of professional experience managing the daily activities of a unit or department.
  4. Minimum of two years of successful supervisory experience.
  5. Demonstrated curatorial, organizational and planning skills with excellent attention to detail.
  6. Demonstrated ability to work effectively, both independently and in cooperation with faculty, staff, and students from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds regardless of age, gender, marital status, religion, sexual orientation or disabilities.
  7. Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Preferred Experience

  1. Demonstrated understanding of children’s literature research and research trends in the field.
  2. Demonstrated facility and successful experience with current and emerging technology as it applies to collection management, outreach, and instruction.
  3. Experience creating or maintaining a collection development policy for a multifaceted collection.
  4. Experience working with digital collections.
  5. Experience with overseeing, planning and preparing department or collection budgets.
  6. Experience in developing working partnerships with diverse academic departments and campus units and organizations.
  7. Demonstrated ability to build community relationships and increase support for the Center.
  8. Experience with planning, organizing and executing successful events.
  9. Experience designing and setting up exhibits.
  10. Experience with grants and private fundraising.
  11. Experience with working with an advisory board or friends group.
  12. Experience with copyright issues and advanced research assistance.
  13. Excellent presentation skills.
  14. Experience with assessment tools and methods.
  15. Foreign language ability.

Application Procedures
For best consideration, apply by May 25, 2020.  This position vacancy remains open until filled.  Apply online at http://jobs.csufresno.edu and attach the following:

  1. Letter of interest or cover letter specifically addressing all elements of required experience. Please also address any of the preferred qualifications you may have.
  2. Current curriculum vitae.
  3. Names and contact information of three professional references
  4. Statement addressing your commitment to working with faculty, staff, and students from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
  5. Philosophy on community engagement and donor relations.
  6. List of past publications or professional creative activities or a statement of research interests and potential publications, projects or presentations.

Candidates invited for an on-campus visit must submit by mail/e-mail within the designated deadline. The Search Chair will send information and requests for these items.

  1. Three current letters of recommendation (dated within 12 months of full consideration date.)
  2. Official transcripts.

Committee Information
Search Chair: Tammy Lau
Henry Madden Library
Email: tammyl@csufresno.edu

For full job vacancy announcement, please visit:  https://careers.fresnostate.edu/en-us/job/496720/special-collections-librarian-for-the-arne-nixon-center

New Books

New Book Releases

Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation by Lauren Heidbrink

“Migranthood chronicles deportation from the perspectives of Indigenous youth who migrate unaccompanied from Guatemala to Mexico and the United States. In communities of origin in Guatemala, zones of transit in Mexico, detention centers for children in the U.S., government facilities receiving returned children in Guatemala, and communities of return, young people share how they negotiate everyday violence and discrimination, how they and their families prioritize limited resources and make difficult decisions, and how they develop and sustain relationships over time and space…The insights and experiences of young people uncover the transnational effects of securitized responses to migration management and development on individuals and families, across space, citizenship status, and generation.”

Receive 20% off at https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=31467 with code: HEIDBRINK20.

Child Helpers: A Multidisciplinary Perspective by David F. Lancy

“In most of the worlds’ distinct cultures, children – from toddlerhood – eagerly volunteer to help others with their chores. Laboratory research in child psychology supports the claim that the helper “stage” is biologically based. This Element examines the development of helping in varied cultural contexts, in particular, reviewing evidence for supportive environments in the ethnographic record versus an environment that extinguishes the drive to be helpful in WEIRD children. In the last section, the benefits of the helper stage are discussed, specifically the development of an ability to work and learn collaboratively.”

 

 

 

 

Calls for Papers: Conferences

AAA 2020 Call For Papers: Precarious Connections: Exploring Social Disconnection Across the Lifecourse 

Precarious Connections: Exploring Social Disconnection Across the Lifecourse 

Social disconnection has emerged as a particular form of precarity, the logical endgame of an individualizing neoliberal trajectory exposed, in particular, by the COVID-19 pandemic. Older adults around the world often have been disproportionately subject to this disconnection; although, we would argue, this is a phenomenon individuals face across the lifecourse. Yet, even as inertia pushes toward isolation, inherent interdependencies and the futures they make possible are revealed. In this panel, we present ethnographic research from across the life course to document sustained and novel forms of social disconnection being experienced and to draw insights about imaginaries made possible by embracing our interdependence.

Within anthropological scholarship, there has been long-standing interest in the relationship between aging and sociality (or its absence) resulting in various forms of social disconnection and isolation. Anthropologists have worked to articulate the dimensions of social disconnection by describing and distinguishing between not just loneliness, but social isolation, solitude, and marginality (Biehl, 2005; Lamb, 2008; Coleman, 2014; Mikkelson, 2016; Danely, 2019). This literature provides insightful commentary on social processes and relationships and highlights the interdependent nature of social disconnection.

This panel investigates various forms of social disconnection with the intention to highlight the fact we understand disconnection in relation to the (imagined) body politic. In doing so, we maintain that different relationships to sociality (e.g., loneliness, solitude, social distancing) are not mutually exclusive, but instead are dynamic and simultaneous. Alongside these relationships, this panel explores the affective, relational, technological, social, and political-economic dimensions of social disconnection. How do institutions construct and organize solitude and other forms of social disconnection? What kinds of work does social disconnection do for our current political economic configurations? Under which conditions do forms of social disconnection emerge, shift and/or circulate across different contexts? How is social disconnection experienced and understood across the life course? What forms of solitude(s) emerge within social relationships? In light of the spread of COVID-19, how do loneliness and solitude(s) emerge as the new form of sociality/belonging and social organization?

We are looking to add 2 additional papers to our panel, and thus, invite ethnographic submissions that consider the following topics, but are not limited to:

  • social disconnection across the life course
  • intersection of technology and social disconnection
  • encounters of loneliness, solitude and social isolation in intimate and non-intimate relations
  • navigating the healthcare system and social disconnection
  • how institutions and policies create socially-disconnected subjects
  • social disconnection as a form of sociality
  • considerations of solitude, loneliness and social distancing amidst outbreaks/epidemics/pandemics (eg Ebola, SARS, Covid19)

Interested panelists should submit their paper title, abstract (no more than 250 words), affiliation, and contact information to Fayana Richards (f.richards@memphis.edu) and Aaron Seaman (aaron-seaman@uiowa.edu) by March 30. Decisions regarding abstract submission will be circulated by April 3.

Announcements, Calls for Papers: Conferences, Uncategorized

Call for an Invited Session at the 2020 AAA’s

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

ACYIG: The Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group is announcing a call for an invited session at the 2020 American Anthropological Association in St. Louis, MO. We seek panels reflecting this year’s theme, “truth and responsibility” within a reimagined anthropology. We encourage submissions that are innovative, progressive, and pedagogically center the anthropology of children and youth. We are especially interested in panels that have a cross-cultural, cross-regional, and interdisciplinary reach. “Truth and Responsibility” is the broad theme of this year’s meeting.

ACYIG is broadly and holistically conceived as a collective of anthropologists and other scholars working in areas that emphasize the study of children and youth. It is formally constituted as the Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group of the American Anthropological Association (AAA).

Please, email your session abstract along with the individual abstracts from each presenter (of no more than 500 words), and  presenter names and roles by Tuesday, March 31, 2020, by 5PM CST to elisha.oliver@okstate.edu and elisha.r.oliver@occc.edu

Thank you and looking forward to reading your work!
ACYIG Board

 

Announcements, Calls for Papers: Publishing, Uncategorized

CFP for April 2020 Issue of NEOS

NEOS: The flagship publication of the Anthropology of Children & Youth Interest Group
Theme: “Rich Pasts, Future Horizons: A New Decade in the Anthropology of Children & Youth”

The turn of the decade offers opportunities for retrospection, reflection, and imagining new paths ahead. As we launch the first issue of the decade and a new online format, we look to the future of child and youth studies and honor the solid foundation of scholarly innovation and community-building accomplished thus far in the field.

NEOS welcomes submission for its upcoming April 2020 issue: Rich Pasts, Future Horizons: A New Decade in the Anthropology of Children & Youth. We invite short-form original research articles (1,000 words max, excluding references), as well as commentaries (500 words max, excluding references) that address the issue’s theme. We are particularly interested in:

    1) Articles & commentaries that address methodological, ethical, geographical, political, and intersectional challenges/opportunities in childhood and youth studies; and
    2) Articles that speak to interdisciplinary, cutting-edge research in child and youth studies

NEOS also welcomes original research articles that—while not necessarily directly connected to the CFP theme—highlight recent “hot off the press” research in the field.

NEOS is an open-access publication of the Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group of the American Anthropological Association. We publish research on childhood and youth from scholars working across the four fields of anthropology, as well from those interdisciplinary fields in conversation with anthropological theories and methods. Articles published in NEOS undergo a double-blind peer-review process, and commentaries are reviewed by the NEOS Editorial Team.

The deadline for submissions is March 16, 2020 (end of the day). For further information on the submission process, see here.

We ask that all authors planning to submit articles or commentaries email the NEOS editors no later than March 2, 2020, with a brief message about their intent to submit and short abstract of their commentary or article. NEOS Editors may be reached at acyig.editor@gmail.com