Childhood and Materiality - VIII Conference on Childhood Studies
Main funder
Funder's project number: 9992775-20172
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 6 000,00
Funding program
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/09/2017
Project end date: 31/12/2018
Summary
Materiality has recently become a widely debated theme across social sciences and humanities. As developed within new realist, posthumanist and materialist discourses, materiality has challenged traditional views on the primacy of humans and language, as well as the limits of rationality, knowledge, autonomy and identity – with implications for ontology, epistemology and ethics. Materiality is directly connected to topics such as agency, embodiment, human-nature relationships, place and environment, sustainability, memory and identity, taste and aesthetics, technology, consumerism and many more.
In the context of interdisciplinary childhood studies, materiality has opened novel perspectives on children’s worlds. Children’s being and agency can be located in complex, intimate and interdependent relationships to things and places that can be seen engaging in social interaction as non-human participants. Material objects condition, affect and are intertwined with relationships between children and other humans. Children’s material existence as corporeal and bodied beings lures us to explore physical activity of children, brain functioning, and children’s and young people’s perceptions of their bodies.
In today’s affluent societies, many children live in material abundance and within networks supported by new technologies and consumption, affecting and affected by them. Things and devices are simultaneously means for children of building identity and belonging and instruments of the adult monitoring of children’s lives, their bodies and whereabouts. In a global perspective, the picture is however more complex, for while the overall wellbeing of children has increased, many children live in poverty and even destitution. This is a major challenge for both the implementation of children’s rights and sustainable development. Ultimately, considering human and nonhuman life, environmental change and economic justice are interdependent.
The theme of the 2018 Conference of Childhood Studies is deliberately wide-ranging and designed to invite scholars to explore materiality and childhood across a broad spectrum. We hope to inspire lively debates from different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives about the many aspects of childhood and materiality.
In the context of interdisciplinary childhood studies, materiality has opened novel perspectives on children’s worlds. Children’s being and agency can be located in complex, intimate and interdependent relationships to things and places that can be seen engaging in social interaction as non-human participants. Material objects condition, affect and are intertwined with relationships between children and other humans. Children’s material existence as corporeal and bodied beings lures us to explore physical activity of children, brain functioning, and children’s and young people’s perceptions of their bodies.
In today’s affluent societies, many children live in material abundance and within networks supported by new technologies and consumption, affecting and affected by them. Things and devices are simultaneously means for children of building identity and belonging and instruments of the adult monitoring of children’s lives, their bodies and whereabouts. In a global perspective, the picture is however more complex, for while the overall wellbeing of children has increased, many children live in poverty and even destitution. This is a major challenge for both the implementation of children’s rights and sustainable development. Ultimately, considering human and nonhuman life, environmental change and economic justice are interdependent.
The theme of the 2018 Conference of Childhood Studies is deliberately wide-ranging and designed to invite scholars to explore materiality and childhood across a broad spectrum. We hope to inspire lively debates from different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives about the many aspects of childhood and materiality.
