Children and Youth as Subjects, Objects, Agents: Innovative Approaches to Research Across Space and Time

Description

This textbook showcases innovative approaches to the interdisciplinary field of childhood and youth studies, examining how young people in a wide range of contemporary and historical contexts around the globe live their young lives as subjects, objects, and agents. The diverse contributions examine how children and youth are simultaneously constructed: as individual subjects through social processes and culturally-specific discourses; as objects of policy intervention and other adult power plays; and also as active agents who act on their world and make meaning even amidst conditions of social, political, and economic marginalization. In addition, the book is centrally engaged with questions about how researchers take into consideration children's and young people's own conceptions of themselves and how we conceptualize child and youth potentials for agency at different ages and stages of growing up. Each chapter discusses substantive research but also engages in self-reflection about methodology, positionality, and/or disciplinarity, thus making the volume especially useful for teaching. This book will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including childhood studies, youth studies, girls' studies, development studies, research methods, sociology, anthropology, education, history, geography, public policy, cultural studies, gender and women's studies and global studies. Acknowledgments Contents About the Editors List of Figures 1 Children and Youth as Subjects, Objects, Agents: An Introduction Section 1: Construction of Children and Youth as SUBJECTS Section 2: Critiquing OBJECTification of Children and Youth Section 3: Recognizing Children and Youth as AGENTS Conclusion Part I Construction of Children and Youth as SUBJECTS 2 “So How’s Your Childhood Going?” A Historian of Childhood Confronts Her Own Archive The Diary as Object Manufacturing the Objective Gaze Trauma as a Framework for Childhood: Comparative Chile and New Hampshire, 1986 Conclusions Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 3 Encountering Emotions in the Archive of Childhood and Youth Theory: Emotion in the Archive of Childhood Application: Middle-Class German Youth, 1770–1850 Conclusions Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 4 Visualizing the Spaces of Childhood in Graphic Memoirs Re-Envisioning Childhood in American Graphic Memoirs Perspective and the Child Subject The Spaces of Comic Childhoods in Examples from the Global South Conclusions and New Questions Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 5 Turning off the Recorder: Caring Relationships in Research with Youth Grief and Sustenance Collaboration and Friendship Background Judith’s Story From Rapport to Relationship Laura’s Story Turning the Microphone Off: Care and Power in Research Relationships Hard Stories and New Life Judith’s Story Continued Laura’s Story Continued Concluding Reflections on Critical Care, Knowledge Production, and Loss Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 6 Productive Tensions in Interdisciplinary and Mixed-Methods Research on Youths’ Livelihoods Introduction A Dynamic Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Research Project Tensions in “Measuring” and Describing Youths’ Livelihoods Tensions Over Interviewing, Translating, and Interpreting Youths’ Lives Conclusions Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References Part II Critiquing OBJECTification of Children and Youth 7 The Daughters of Bengal: A History of “Western Eyes” on the Girl Victim Introduction The Hastings Trial in the Context of Imperial Expansion Roman and Greek History South Asian History Christian History Conclusion Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 8 Searching for the Child in Colonial Uganda’s Educational Archives Stories Told About Children: Considering Child-Focused Sources Photographs Progress Stories Stories Children Tell: Considering Child-Authored Sources Discussion and Conclusion Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 9 Black Sites of Speculation: A Case for Theorizing Black Childhood as a Subject in Black Adult Narratives The Empirical Problem of Making Black Childhood a Subject and Black Girls Agents in Historical Research Stages of Enslaved Girlhood: Humanizing Slave Girls Conclusion Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 10 Archives, Adoption Records, and Owning Historical Memory An Exercise in Power: Law, Policy, and Rights to Access Mediating Archives, Adoptee Childhoods, and Popular Discourse Yang Kwi Hwa/Eileen Thompson Bong Kyoo Choi/David Zastrow Rights to Self Conclusion Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 11 Global Girl Policy and the Girl Effect: Gendered Origins and Silences How Did Girls Gain Ground on Global Agendas? Girls on the Global Agenda: Women and Children? Children’s Rights and Global Institutions as Building Blocks Gendered Social Knowledge and the Case of the “Girl Effect” Conclusion: Silences in the Girl Effect Discourse Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References Part III Recognizing Children and Youth as AGENTS 12 Is It Okay to Critique Youth Activists? Notes on the Power and Danger of Complexity Intergenerational Relationships in the Peruvian Movement of Working Children The Risks of Critique Managing Risks and Minimizing Harm Conclusion Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 13 Re/Writing Gendered Scripts: A Longitudinal Research Partnership Reshaping Gender and Education Policy and Praxis in Zanzibar, Tanzania The Gendered Social Script The Research Partnership Baobab Secondary School The Popular Theater Approach Engaging with the Gendered Social Script Turning Research into Praxis Conclusion Epilogue Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 14 Generational Power in Research with Children: Reflections on Risk and “Voice” Conceptualizing “Voice” in Feminist Scholarship Children’s “Voice” and Human Rights Child Participatory Research and Advocacy Longitudinal Ethnography Animating Children’s Views: Can Children’s Perspectives Be Quantified? Conclusion Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References 15 Youth Circulations: Tracing the Real and Imagined Circulations of Global Youth Why Youth Circulations? Personal and Professional Motivations Narratives and Counter-Narratives Scholarly Relevance Lessons Learned Questions for Discussion Glossary Suggested Readings References Index