Navigating the bio-politics of childhood

Abstract

Childhood research has long shared a bio-political terrain with state agencies in which children figure primarily as ‘human futures’. In the 20th century bio-social dualism helped to make that terrain navigable by researchers, but, as life processes increasingly become key sites of bio-political action, bio-social dualism is becoming less useful as a navigational aid. The contribution that a view of childhood as a ‘hybrid’ phenomenon might make to developing new navigational aids is considered. A Foucaultian reading of the history of childhood bio-politics yields three ‘multiplicities’ of childhood. The assistance these can offer in navigating the contemporary biopolitics of childhood is described.