Exploring race and nation in playground propaganda in early twentieth-century Toronto

Abstract

This article examines how a regime of knowledge was enacted on the bodies of children in Toronto playgrounds at the turn of the twentieth century. Using Foucault's description of biopower, or the 'power over life', I explore how performances of the body (visibilities) were integral in creating citizens in a colonial context (identities). I conduct a detailed reading of one part of Foucault's 'great bipolar technology', the biopolitical regulation of children as part of a population in order to highlight the importance of playground discourses and applications in the construction of subjects and a future nation.

Growing Ideal Children in School Gardens : A Historical Discourse Analysis

“…Other groups wanted to assimilate immigrants into the new society and undertook campaigns to civilize the immigrant through their children in school gardens, playgrounds, parks, and recreation centres. Many of these movements actually served to further reinforce the white settler colonial's economic and social position and were deeply rooted in white supremacy (see Mobily, 2021;Murnaghan, 2013). This underlying sentiment of the social order is also evidenced in discussion of the value of agriculture to a good education which includes maintenance of the white race, Every race has dug its civilization out of the ground, and that our children need to follow in their footsteps, in this regard, at least, is becoming more apparent with each mark of progress made by gardening and agriculture in our schools.…”

The public playground paradox: ‘child’s joy’ or heterotopia of fear?

“…The playground space was initially created as a space for children's protection and segregation from the rest of society and the city (See: Gagen 2000aGagen , 2000b, while later approaches perceived it as the starting point for engaging children in civic life; a place of social interaction (Allin, West, and Curry 2014;Bennet et al 2012;Bunnell et al 2012;Daniels and Hohnson 2009;Doll and Brehm 2010;Galani 2011;Kinchin and O'Connor 2012) and identity formation (Crust et al 2014;Gross and Rutland 2014;Murnaghan 2013;Richards 2012). The body of research on the playground, however, has tended to approach it as a play-accommodating, self-contained structure (Luken, Carr, and Douglas-Brown 2011;Nasar and Holloman 2013;Refshauge, Stigsdotter, and Specht Petersen 2013) without exploring its publicness and connections to adjacent spaces.…”