The body as a battlefield: approaching children's politics

Abstract

This article discusses the active role of children in everyday politics. Distinct from empowerment, it is suggested that children can be political on their own terms. The article focuses on revealing the social production of childhood, which takes place in the confrontation between child policy and children's own politics. Children's bodies are found to be both the main focus of policy practices and a central avenue of children's own agency. Hence, children are understood to be not only objects of policy, but also embodied political subjects. Using the example of Finnish child evacuees’ experiences during the Second World War, it is shown that, despite their positions in policy fields, children do act as political selves. Using the ideas of Michel de Certeau and Carl Schmitt, it is argued that there is an autonomous politics to children which can be recognized as a significant means of coping in their everyday lives. On these grounds, the article sets out to use Pierre Bourdieu's concept of political struggle in considering childhood spatialities in more detail. Overall, children's politics are understood as a wider geographical concept which requires further examination.

Tracing children’s politics

“…Shamgar-Handelman & Handelman, 1991;Gordon & Lahelma, 1996;Kjørholt, 2002;Forsberg & Strandell, 2007). However, as we have pointed out elsewhere, the political potentials of children's everyday activities are rarely sought for (Kallio, 2007(Kallio, , 2008(Kallio, , 2009Kallio & Häkli, 2010, 2011b. While the political aspects of young people's commitments in personal and communal matters are increasingly recognized (e.g.…”

“…It is more difficult to politicize children's agency in peaceful societies than in cases where children's activities take place in self-evidently political contexts, such as Palestine, Afghanistan or Northern Ireland (cf. Kallio, 2008Kallio, , 2009). Also, concerns that are not transparently political, such as videogames and dating, are not as easily seen as political as, for instance, work, prostitution, animal liberation or green consumerism.…”

Young people’s voiceless politics in the struggle over urban space

“…Importantly, these research streams are intertwined as 'Politics' and 'politics' do not exist apart from each other but are co-constituted in the socio-spatial practices of everyday life and policymaking (Philo & Smith 2003;Percy-Smith 2006;Skelton 2010). As we have argued elsewhere, children and young people play active roles in both public large-scale events as well as more private small-scale matters (Kallio 2007(Kallio , 2008(Kallio , 2009Kallio & Häkli 2010, 2011. As the political aspects of their actions typically pass unnoticed, also the relevance, effects and scope of their politics tend to remain unidentified.…”

Political geography in childhood

“…They can be empowered by participatory practices and heard in matters of their concern but not held responsible and liable for themselves. Children typically fail to measure up to adults' and institutional actors' rational argumentation and thus by necessity practice politics on other, often bodily, grounds (Kallio 2008;Thomas 2009). Secondly, at the same time children are human beings thoroughly involved in meaning-making processes and identity construction, living their lives as actual members of institutions, communities and societies (James & Prout 1997;Alderson 2008).…”