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Our shared motivation for this special issue was in response to the apparent explosion in posthumanist childhood studies in recent years; the deep scepticism and distrust it generates in certain quarters; and, crucially, our concern with... more
Our shared motivation for this special issue was in response to the apparent explosion in posthumanist childhood studies in recent years; the deep scepticism and distrust it generates in certain quarters; and, crucially, our concern with detectable formulas that have emerged in such research. As with any 'new' paradigm shift, the readiness with which scholars seek to enact the complex approach can undermine or dilute its philosophical underpinnings. Therefore, this special issue was intended to slow down and pause, to return to the philosophical potential of posthumanism to transform the questions and open-ended enquiries it enables. Posthumanism deserves recognition for the important opportunities it has created, the exciting possibilities for fresh ways of thinking about and be(coming) with 'child'. There is little doubt that 'new' approaches to research with, for and about child/hood are needed in our ever more complex multispecies, more-than-(Adult)human existence, shaped by the growing threat of planetary destruction as a human habitat. There is an urgent need for childhood scholars to reappraise our relationships to each other and to 'the' world, which posthumanism insists must be carefully attuned and attended to. The urgency with which a different relationality that disrupts western binary logic and unilinear temporalities is needed to find ways to live (and die) well together (Barad, 2007; Haraway, 2016; Tsing, 2015) makes particular demands of childhood scholars. We face an imperative to tune into life in the Anthropocene in more ethical and responsible waysways that might best be informed and shaped by childlike figurations (Osgood, 2022, in press) and diffractive childlike methodologies (Murris, 2022: 69-93). To that end, this special issue seeks to elevate 'child' and 'childing' practices in research (Murris & Borcherds, 2019) so that 'the' world can be encountered by troubling human-centred optics and space as an empty container that can be filled (Barad, 2007). The ontological shift from Newtonian physics and Cartesian dualist notions of the self completely changes (or at the very least shakes) the foundations upon which knowledge and knowing get produced.
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Our shared motivation for this special issue was in response to the apparent explosion in posthumanist childhood studies in recent years; the deep scepticism and distrust it generates in certain quarters; and, crucially, our concern with... more
Our shared motivation for this special issue was in response to the apparent explosion in posthumanist childhood studies in recent years; the deep scepticism and distrust it generates in certain quarters; and, crucially, our concern with detectable formulas that have emerged in such research. As with any 'new' paradigm shift, the readiness with which scholars seek to enact the complex approach can undermine or dilute its philosophical underpinnings. Therefore, this special issue was intended to slow down and pause, to return to the philosophical potential of posthumanism to transform the questions and open-ended enquiries it enables. Posthumanism deserves recognition for the important opportunities it has created, the exciting possibilities for fresh ways of thinking about and be(coming) with 'child'. There is little doubt that 'new' approaches to research with, for and about child/hood are needed in our ever more complex multispecies, more-than-(Adult)human existence, shaped by the growing threat of planetary destruction as a human habitat. There is an urgent need for childhood scholars to reappraise our relationships to each other and to 'the' world, which posthumanism insists must be carefully attuned and attended to. The urgency with which a different relationality that disrupts western binary logic and unilinear temporalities is needed to find ways to live (and die) well together (Barad, 2007; Haraway, 2016; Tsing, 2015) makes particular demands of childhood scholars. We face an imperative to tune into life in the Anthropocene in more ethical and responsible waysways that might best be informed and shaped by childlike figurations (Osgood, 2022, in press) and diffractive childlike methodologies (Murris, 2022: 69-93). To that end, this special issue seeks to elevate 'child' and 'childing' practices in research (Murris & Borcherds, 2019) so that 'the' world can be encountered by troubling human-centred optics and space as an empty container that can be filled (Barad, 2007). The ontological shift from Newtonian physics and Cartesian dualist notions of the self completely changes (or at the very least shakes) the foundations upon which knowledge and knowing get produced.
This article is a conceptual co-exploration of the relationship between philosophy and childism. It draws upon a colloquium in December 2021 at the Childism Institute at Rutgers University. Nine co-authors lay out and interweave scholarly... more
This article is a conceptual co-exploration of the relationship between philosophy and childism. It draws upon a colloquium in December 2021 at the Childism Institute at Rutgers University. Nine co-authors lay out and interweave scholarly imaginations to collectively explore the concept of childism in critical philosophical depth. Through diverse entry points, the co-authors bring a wide range of theoretical perspectives to this task, some engaging the term childism explicitly in their work, others approaching it anew. The result is an extended conversation about the possibilities for deconstructing ingrained historical adultism and reconstructing social norms and structures in response to what is marginalized in the experiences of children. Our own conclusion, having initiated this dialogue, is that we have learned to think about childism with greater plurality, that is, as childisms.
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This chapter gives an overview of how the substance ontology of Western philosophy thrives on the power producing Nature/Culture dichotomy, has caused asymmetrical violence, infiltrated everyday language, created academic divisions,... more
This chapter gives an overview of how the substance ontology of Western philosophy thrives on the power producing Nature/Culture dichotomy, has caused asymmetrical violence, infiltrated everyday language, created academic divisions, produced hierarchical categories and classifications, and underpins colonialism and colonizing notions of relationships – not only between humans and subhumans (e.g., child) but also between humans and more-than-humans (e.g., animals, matter). This chapter shows how critical posthumanism as a navigational tool offers a different relational ontology – more akin to African Indigenous scholarship and ways of living – that reconfigures subjectivity and brings into K. Murris (*) University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa e-mail: karin.murris@uct.ac.za # Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 A. Cutter-Mackenzie et al. (eds.), Research Handbook on Childhoodnature, Springer International Handbooks of Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_7-2 1 existence the notions of posthuman child and the sympoietic diffractive teacher (human or nonhuman) – critically urgent notions to consider for education in the Anthropocene.
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This text is an exploration of collaborative thinking and writing through theories, methods, and experiences on the topic of the child, children, and childhood. It is a collaborative written text (with 32 authors) that sprang out of the... more
This text is an exploration of collaborative thinking and writing through theories, methods, and experiences on the topic of the child, children, and childhood. It is a collaborative written text (with 32 authors) that sprang out of the experimental workshop Child Studies Multiple. The workshop and this text are about daring to stay with mess, “un-closure” , and uncertainty in order to investigate the (e)motions and complexities of being either a child or a researcher. The theoretical and methodological processes presented here offer an opportunity to shake the ground on which individual researchers stand by raising questions about scientific inspiration, theoretical and methodological productivity, and thinking through focusing on process, play, and collaboration. The effect of this is a questioning of the singular academic ‘I’ by exploring and showing what a plural ‘I’ can look like. It is about what the multiplicity of voice can offer research in a highly individualistic time. Th...
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In response to the call for papers for this special issue and the questions it poses, the authors show how the ontological posthumanist shift of agential realism does not erase but keeps the child human of colour in play, despite the... more
In response to the call for papers for this special issue and the questions it poses, the authors show how the ontological posthumanist shift of agential realism does not erase but keeps the child human of colour in play, despite the inclusion of the other-than-(Adult)human in its methodologies. Through a montaging technique, the authors explore the philosophical complexity of ‘decentering without erasure’ by re-turning to data from a large international research project – Children, Technology and Play (2019–2020). Through an agential realist reading of interview data ‘of’ ‘seven-year-old’ Henry when visiting him at home in an informal settlement in Cape Town, they show what else is going on, and the politically radical and subtle philosophical difference this makes for reconfiguring child subjectivity. To do more justice to the complexity of reality, the analysis bounces around like Henry's sack ball and zooms in on the role apparatuses such as GoPros play in research. The auth...
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Conceptions of child and childhood have been variously (re)constructed by adults throughout history, and yet systematic questioning of the epistemological, ontological, political, and ethical assumptions informing these conceptions... more
Conceptions of child and childhood have been variously (re)constructed by adults throughout history, and yet systematic questioning of the epistemological, ontological, political, and ethical assumptions informing these conceptions remains a relatively new field of academic inquiry. The concepts of child and childhood are philosophically problematic because, although children can be biologically and physiologically categorized, the normative values attached to these categories matter politically and ethically in educational practices and theory. The philosophy of childhood is therefore concerned with the following: questions about adults’ claims to knowledge of childhood and child subjectivity; the limitations and implications of the notion of “development” structuring theoretical claims about child and childhood; the construction of various alternative and intersecting figurations of child; the examination of the socio-historical, philosophical, and biological bases of these figura...
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In this chapter we give an account of our philosophical engagement with picturebooks, a ground-breaking genre of literature-art, our identification of criteria for picturebook selection, and our exposition of picturebooks as philosophical... more
In this chapter we give an account of our philosophical engagement with picturebooks, a ground-breaking genre of literature-art, our identification of criteria for picturebook selection, and our exposition of picturebooks as philosophical texts (Murris 1992, 1997; Haynes 2007; 2008; Haynes & Murris 2012; Murris 2016). We reflect on the wider contestation about literature, art, reading, childhood and how this is reflected in the portrayal and enactment of adult:child relations.