Temporalizing Childhood: A Conversation with Erica Burman, Stephanie Olsen, Spyros Spyrou, and Hanne Warming

This paper is a summary of the keynote panel conversation that took place as part of the “Childhood in Time”conference, May 10–12, 2021. The speakers respond to the question of how they place childhood in time relations,giving examples from their own research and outlining an agenda for considering time in childhood studies.

“Revolution is the Equality of Children and Adults”: Yaşar Kemal Interviews Street Children, 1975

In 1975, the world-famous novelist Yaşar Kemal (1923–2015) undertook a series of journalistic interviews with street children in Istanbul. The series, entitled “Children Are Human” (Çocuklar İnsandır), reflects the author's rebellious attitude as well as the revolutionary spirit of hope in the 1970s in Turkey. Kemal's ethnographic fieldwork with street children criticized the demotion of children to a less-than-human status when present among adults. He approached children's rights from a human rights angle, stressing the humanity of children and that children's rights are human rights. The methodological contribution of this research to the history of children and youth is its engagement with ethnography as historical source. His research provided children the opportunity to express their political subjectivities and their understanding of the major political questions of the time, specifically those of social justice, (in)equality, poverty, and ethnic violence encountered in their everyday interactions with politics in the country. Yaşar Kemal's fieldwork notes and transcribed interviews also bring to light immense injustices within an intersectional framework of age, class, ethnicity, and gender. The author emphasizes that children's political agency and their political protest is deeply rooted in their subordination and misery, but also in their dreams and hopes. Situating Yaşar Kemal's “Children Are Human” in the context of the 1970s in Turkey, I hope to contribute to childhood studies with regard to the political agency of children as well as to the history of public intellectuals and newspapers in Turkey and to progressive representations of urban marginalization.

Methodology of Modern Research Concerning Childhood – The Perspective of Childhood Studies

Modern research concerning childhood has been developing mostly based on the concept of children’s rights, which is seen not only in the topics of research but also in the objectives and methodological aspects. The aim of the paper is to show how respecting children’s subjectivity and their right to voice opinions in matters that affect them are reflected in childhood studies by means of the specific epistemological perspective, which is seeing the reality through children’s eyes, and the preference for some methodological solutions, i.e. the types of research and the applied methods that are useful in obtaining reports, opinions and assessment of children. The analysis of scientific and research discourse allowed identification of several preferred methodological types of childhood studies, i.e. ethnographic, meta-analytical using big data, survey and longitudinal research. It also allowed indication of the current which is developed in research on childhood and is related to promotion of participatory research with children.

Promoting Intergenerational Justice Through Participatory Practices: Climate Workshops as an Arena for Young People’s Political Participation

In the fall of 2019, Trøndelag County Council, Norway, organized a Climate Workshop for children and youth. The intention of the workshop was to include children’s and youth’s perspectives as a foundation for a policy document titled “How we do it in Trøndelag. Strategy for transformations to mitigate climate change”. The workshop involved a range of creative and discussion tools for input on sustainable development and climate politics. In this article, we aim to (1) describe and discuss innovative practices that include children and youth in policymaking related to climate action, and (2) discuss the theoretical implications of such policymaking in relation to children’s rights, young citizenship, and intergenerational justice. We employ a generational framework and perceive climate politics as inherently ingrained in intergenerational justice, where no generation has a superior claim to the earth’s resources, yet power is unfairly concentrated and accumulated among adult generations. We draw on contributions by various stakeholders involved: Two young workshop participants, two county council policymakers, and an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Childhood Studies and Design.

Time-to-event estimation of birth prevalence trends: A method to enable investigating the etiology of childhood disorders including autism

An unbiased, widely accepted estimate of the rate of occurrence of new cases of autism over time would facilitate progress in understanding the causes of autism. The same may also apply to other disorders. While incidence is a widely used measure of occurrence, birth prevalence—the proportion of each birth year cohort with the disorder—is the appropriate measure for disorders and diseases of early childhood. Studies of autism epidemiology commonly speculate that estimates showing strong increases in rate of autism cases result from an increase in diagnosis rates rather than a true increase in cases. Unfortunately, current methods are not sufficient to provide a definitive resolution to this controversy. Prominent experts have written that it is virtually impossible to solve. This paper presents a novel method, time-to-event birth prevalence estimation (TTEPE), to provide accurate estimates of birth prevalence properly adjusted for changing diagnostic factors. It addresses the shortcomings of prior methods. TTEPE is based on well-known time-to-event (survival) analysis techniques. A discrete survival process models the rates of incident diagnoses by birth year and age. Diagnostic factors drive the probability of diagnosis as a function of the year of diagnosis. TTEPE models changes in diagnostic criteria, which can modify the effective birth prevalence when new criteria take effect. TTEPE incorporates the development of diagnosable symptoms with age. General-purpose optimization software estimates all parameters, forming a non-linear regression. The paper specifies all assumptions underlying the analysis and explores potential deviations from assumptions and optional additional analyses. A simulation study shows that TTEPE produces accurate parameter estimates, including trends in both birth prevalence and the probability of diagnosis in the presence of sampling effects from finite populations. TTEPE provides high power to resolve small differences in parameter values by utilizing all available data points.

Badania skoncentrowane na dzieciach, badania z udziałem dzieci, dzieci jako badacze. Etyczne i metodologiczne aspekty badań prowadzonych w nurcie nowej socjologii dzieci i dzieciństwa

Badania dzieciństwa, w tym badania z udziałem dzieci, są rozwijającym się obszarem aktywności naukowej, podejmowanej w ramach interdyscyplinarnych nowych studiów nad dzieciństwem (new childhood studies). Obecnie opierają się na koncepcji dziecka jako aktywnego aktora społecznego oraz na prawach dziecka w rozumieniu Konwencji o prawach dziecka ONZ z 1989 roku. Prowadzenie badań skoncentrowanych na dzieciach i badań z udziałem dzieci, a także badań, w których dzieci przyjmują rolę badaczy (są współautorami badań) wymaga pogłębionej refleksji nad etyką i metodologią. Dzieci, jako przedstawiciele grupy mniejszościowej, podlegającej dyskryminacji i marginalizacji, zaliczane są do grupy „wrażliwych” (sensitive) i „nieuprzywilejowanych” (vulnerable) uczestników badań. Artykuł opiera się na analizie literatury przedmiotu i wywiadach eksperckich z badaczami/badaczkami dzieciństwa. W tekście prezentuję ważne etyczne i metodologiczne kwestie badań z udziałem dzieci wraz z przykładami rozwiązań stosowanych w tych obszarach w ramach nowych studiów dzieciństwa.

Insect-Thinking as Resistance to Education’s Human Exceptionalism: Relationality and Cuts in More-Than-Human Childhoods

This article discusses the “more-than-human” turn in qualitative inquiry and education, engaging with the critiques presented by philosophers, animal studies scholars, and educational scholars toward the “too easy” adoption of an inclusive relational ontology. Based on Barad’s concept of re-turning, the article develops a methodology of insect-thinking, which folds memories as well as scientific and “low theoretical” sources in and out the analysis to re-narrate child–animal encounters as entangled with place, time, class, poverty, displacement, imagination, and planetary futures. Insect-thinking produces irritations and interruptions to the human exceptionalism that underpins educational research and childhood studies. Based on conflicts, avoidance, and violence in child–insect relations, the authors discuss “cuts in relationality” and propose insect-thinking as means to approach more-than-human worlds as both shared and incommensurable.

Young People’s Experience of Post-Separation Fathering Where the Father has been Violent to the Mother

<p>My intention in undertaking this research was to examine young people’s experiences of living with their father following parental separation where their father has been violent to their mother. To date there is little knowledge of children’s post-separation experiences of fathering or of the parenting abilities of partner abusive men. This study takes a feminist approach and is informed by scholarship on family issues, childhood studies and the sociology of the child. The study was guided by hermeneutic phenomenology and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Twenty young people aged 18 to 26 took part in the study and face to face interviews were carried out over a one year period. The findings revealed that some fathers were overly punitive in their parenting style with a number of fathers continuing to be physically and/or emotionally abusive to their children. Authoritarian or permissive parenting practices were also identified and a number of fathers were shown to be neglectful, making little effort to bond with their children or provide quality care. In cases where fathers were unable to accept the break-up and move on this was also shown to have an adverse effect on their ability to parent effectively including an inability to co-operate with children’s mothers. In contrast, the majority of mothers were shown to be central to children’s lives undertaking most of the caring responsibilities. Mothers also recognised children’s changing needs as they grew older, encouraged autonomy, and contributed to children’s social development and maturity by trusting their judgement. However, this was not necessarily a protective factor against difficulties that participants have experienced as young adults. A time-share or full-time arrangement was revealed as being the most problematic for children although weekend contact could also pose a risk where pre-separation violence towards children had been severe. The study concluded that a safe outcome for children will require a shift away from a father’s right to contact, emphasising instead children’s right to a life free from abuse.</p>

Young People’s Experience of Post-Separation Fathering Where the Father has been Violent to the Mother

<p>My intention in undertaking this research was to examine young people’s experiences of living with their father following parental separation where their father has been violent to their mother. To date there is little knowledge of children’s post-separation experiences of fathering or of the parenting abilities of partner abusive men. This study takes a feminist approach and is informed by scholarship on family issues, childhood studies and the sociology of the child. The study was guided by hermeneutic phenomenology and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Twenty young people aged 18 to 26 took part in the study and face to face interviews were carried out over a one year period. The findings revealed that some fathers were overly punitive in their parenting style with a number of fathers continuing to be physically and/or emotionally abusive to their children. Authoritarian or permissive parenting practices were also identified and a number of fathers were shown to be neglectful, making little effort to bond with their children or provide quality care. In cases where fathers were unable to accept the break-up and move on this was also shown to have an adverse effect on their ability to parent effectively including an inability to co-operate with children’s mothers. In contrast, the majority of mothers were shown to be central to children’s lives undertaking most of the caring responsibilities. Mothers also recognised children’s changing needs as they grew older, encouraged autonomy, and contributed to children’s social development and maturity by trusting their judgement. However, this was not necessarily a protective factor against difficulties that participants have experienced as young adults. A time-share or full-time arrangement was revealed as being the most problematic for children although weekend contact could also pose a risk where pre-separation violence towards children had been severe. The study concluded that a safe outcome for children will require a shift away from a father’s right to contact, emphasising instead children’s right to a life free from abuse.</p>

Philippe Ariés, Childhood and the Everyday

This commentary navigates the oeuvre of Ariés’ writings on childhood, family, private life and death, with a focus on interrogating ‘who is a child?’ Departing from the intellectual history prevalent at the time, Ariés deployed the psychogenic approach to study the cultural history of childhood and family. He examines the quotidian experience of aesthetics and other documents of culture to reveal ‘what was thought about' viz. the mentalities’ of childhood and family spanning a vast canvas from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. Ariés provocatively proposes that childhood is a modern construct, highlighting that children were not always seen as precious, dependent and in need of adult protection. The magnitude of his intellectual adventure continues to be debated, particularly in childhood studies. The commentary includes an analysis of Ariés’ methods and insights about childhood that unsettle the narrow prisms that refract how we see, understand and educate children.