Un/thinking children in development: A contribution from northern antidevelopmental psychology

PDF
Published: Oct 15, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/psy_hps.23612
Keywords:
Antidevelopmental psychology Feminist theory Feminist antipsychological approach Text analysis
Erica Burman
Abstract

This chapter outlines a feminist antipsychological approach to analyzing childhoods. Taking up Squire’s (1990) characterisation of feminism as antipsychology, this paper analyses child development as text. Examples drawn from a range of institutional practices and genres are juxtaposed, to highlight some newly emerging twists of contemporary tropes of northern, normalised childhoods. Unsurprisingly perhaps, recent departures from the rational, autonomous, unitary subject of modern developmental psychology (c.f. Henriques et al, 1984; Burman 1994, 2008a) betray political continuities with older formulations (especially in relation to familialism). Notwithstanding these supposedly flexible times, it will be argued that covert continuities underlying discernable shifts - especially around the configuration of gendered and racialised representations - indicate some key consolidations, albeit now accorded apparently ‘democratic’ hues. Both in their proliferation and
via their juxtaposition, it is suggested, these diverse texts can be installed within a narrative of critique. This political-methodological intervention works, therefore, firstly, to deconstruct the opposition between popular cultural and expert (developmental psychological) knowledges to mediate their mutual elaboration and legitimation. Secondly, this sample of available representations of childhood illustrates a key strategy of (as in Richards’s formulation, 1998), putting psychology in its (culturally and historically limited) place. The paper
ends with some more general epistemological and ethical reflections on the alliances and antagonisms of inter- and cross-disciplinary approaches to childhood, and their contributions to challenging wider
developmental discourses.

Article Details
  • Section
  • SPECIAL SECTION
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The journal PSYCHOLOGY adopts a Platinum open-access policy. Submission, processing or publication costs are waived by the Hellenic Psychological Society. Papers published in the journal PSYCHOLOGY are licensed under a 'Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International' licence. The authors reserve the copyright of their work and grant the journal the right of its first publication. Third-party licensees are allowed to use the published paper immediately after publication as they wish, provided they retain the defined by the license copyright formalities, regarding the reference to its author(s) and its initial publication in the journal PSYCHOLOGY. Moreover, any adjusted work should be shared under the same reuse rights, so with the same CC license.

Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Ailwood, J. (2008). Learning or earning in the “Smart
State”. Childhood: A global journal of child
research, 15(4), 535-551.
Alldred, P. (1996). Whose expertise? Conceptualising
resistance to advice about child-rearing. In E.
Burman, G. Aitken, P. Alldred, R. Allwood, T.
Billington, A. Gordo-Lopez, C. Heenan, D. Marks,
& S. Warner (Eds.), Psychology, discourse
practice: From regulation to resistance (pp. 133-
. London: Taylor & Francis.
Alldred, P., & Burman, E. (2005). Hearing and
interpreting children’s voices: Discourse analytic
contributions. In S. Greene, & D. Hogan (Eds.),
Researching children’s experience: Approaches
and methods (pp. 175-198). London: Sage.
Avis, J. (1991). The strange fate of progressive
education. In Education Group II, Cultural Studies
University of Birmingham, Education limited:
Schooling and training and the new right since
(pp. 114-143). London: Unwin Hyman.
Billig, M. (1995). Banal nationalism. London &
Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Boler, M. (1999). Feeling power: Emotions and
education. New York & London: Routledge.
Bornstein, E. (2001). Child sponsorship, evangelism
and belonging in the work of world vision
Zimbabwe. American Ethnologist, 28(3), 595-622.
Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond technology: Children’s
learning in the age of digital culture. Cambridge:
Polity.
Burman, E. (in press). Deconstructing neoliberal
childhood. Childhood: A global Journal of Child
Research.
Burman, E. (2008a). Developments: Child, image,
nation. London & New York: BrunnerRoutledge.
Burman, E. (2008b). Deconstructing Developmental
Psychology (2nd ed). London & New York:
BrunnerRoutledge.
Burman, E. (2008c). Beyond “women vs. children” or
“womenandchildren”: Engendering childhood
and reformulating motherhood. International
Journal of Children’s Rights, 16(2), 177-194.
Burman, E. (2008d). Developmental Psychology. In
W. Stainton Rogers, & C. Willig (Eds.), Handbook
of Qualitative Psychology (pp. 407-430). London
& Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Burman, E. (2002). Therapy as memorywork:
Dilemmas of construction and reconstruction.
British Journal of Psychotherapy, 18(4), 457-469.
Burman, E. (2006a). Engendering development:
some methodological perspectives on child
labour. Forum for Qualitative Social Research,
(1) http://www.qualitative-research/net/fqs -
texte/1-06/06-1-1-e.pdf
Burman, E. (2006b). Emotions, reflexivity and
feminised action research. Educational Action
Research, 14(3), 315-332.
Burman, E. (1998). Pedagogics of post/modernity:
The address to the child in Walter Benjamin and
Jean-Francois Lyotard. In K. Lesnik-Oberstein
(Ed.), Children in Culture: Approaches to
childhood (pp. 55-88). New York & London:
MacMillan.
Burman, E. (Ed.) (1998). Deconstructing Feminist
Psychology. London: Sage.
Burman, E. (1997). False memories, true hopes:
Revenge of the postmodern on therapy. New
Formations, 30, 122-134.
Burman, E. (1995). What is it? Masculinity and
femininity and the cultural representation of
childhood. In S. Wilkinson, & C. Kitzinger (Eds.),
Feminism and Discourse (pp. 49-67). London:
Sage.
Burman, E., & MacLure, M. (2005). Deconstruction as
a method of research: Stories from the field. In B.
Somekh, & C. Lewin (Eds.), Research methods in
Social Sciences (pp. 284-293). London: Sage.
Burman, E. Aitken, G., Alldred, A., Allwood, R.,
Erica Burman
Billington, T., Goldberg, B., Gordo Lopez, A.,
Heenan, C. Marks, D., & Warner, S. (1996).
Psychology discourse practice: From regulation
to resistance. London: Taylor & Francis.
Burman, E., Alldred, P., Bewley, C., Goldberg, B.,
Heenan, C., Marks, D., Marshall, J.. Taylor, K.,
Ullah, R., & Warner. S. (1995). Challenging
women: Psychology’s exclusions, feminist
possibilities. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Casta eda, C. (2002). Figurations: Child, bodies,
worlds. Durham & London: Duke University Press.
Dahlberg, G., & Moss, P. (2005). Ethics and politics in
Early Childhood Education. London & New York:
RoutledgeFalmer.
Davies, M. M. (1989). Television is good for your kids.
London: Shipman.
Elson, D. (Ed.) (1995). Male bias in the development
process (2nd ed.). Manchester: Manchester
University Press.
Fendler, L. (2001). Educating flexible souls: The
construction of subjectivity through develop -
mentality and interaction. In K. Hultqvist, & G.
Dahlberg (Eds.), Governing the child in the new
millenium (pp. 119-142). New York & London:
RoutledgeFalmer.
Foucault, M. (1977). Language, countermemory,
practice. New York: Cornell University Press.
Franklin, B. (2002). Children’s rights and media
wrongs: Changing representations of children
and the developing rights agenda. In B. Franklin
(Ed.), The new handbook of children’s rights:
Comparative policy and practice (pp. 15-42).
London: Routledge.
Gesell, A. (1950). The first five years of life: A guide
to the study of the pre-school child. London:
Methuen.
Hardyment, C. (1988). From mangle to microwave: The
mechanization of household work. Cambridge:
Polity Press.
Hendrick, H. (1990). Constructions and recon -
structions of British childhood: An interpretive
survey, 1800 to the present. In A. James, & A.
Prout (Eds.), Constructing and reconstructing
childhood: Contemporary issues in the socio -
logical study of childhood (pp. 35-59). Basingstoke,
Hants: Falmer.
Henriques, J., Hollway, W., Urwin, C., Venn, C., &
Walkerdine, V. (1984). Changing the subject:
Psychology, social regulation and subjectivity.
London: Methuen.
Hutnyk, J. (2004). Photogenic poverty: Souvenirs and
infantilism. Journal of Visual Culture, 3(1), 77-94.
Jackson, A.Y., & Mazzei, L.A. (Eds.) (2009). Voice in
qualitative inquiry: Challenging conventional,
interpretive, and critical conceptions in qualitative
research. London & New York: Routledge.
Lafargue, P. (1883). The Right to be lazy (http://www.
marxists.org/archive/lafargue/1883/lazy/index.ht
m, accessed 6 August 2006).
Lister, R. (2005). Investing in the citizen workers of the
future. In H. Hendrick (Ed.), Child welfare and
social policy (pp. 449-462). Bristol: The Policy
Press.
Lister, R. (2006). Children (but not women) first: New
labour, child welfare and gender. Critical Social
Policy, 26(2), 315-335.
Mizen, P., Bolton, A., & Pole, C. (1999). School age
workers: The paid employment of children in
Britain. Work, Employment and Society, 13(3),
-438.
Morrow, G., & Mayall, B. (in press). A critical review of
UNICEF’s report: Child poverty in perspective: An
overview of child-wellbeing in rich countries. In A.
Morgan, E. Ziglio, M. Davies, & R. Barker (Eds.),
International health and development: Investing in
assets of individuals, communities and
organisations.
Moss, P., & Petrie, P. (2002). From children’s services
to children’s spaces. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Nash, J. (2008). Re-thinking intersectionality. Feminist
Review, 89, 1-15.
Nieuwenhuys, O. (2008). Editorial: The ethics of
children’s rights. Childhood, 15(1), 4-11.
Nieuwenhuys, O. (2007). Embedding the global
womb: Global child labour and the new policy
agenda. Children’s Geographies, 5(1-2), 149-163.
Palmer, S. (2006). Toxic childhood: How the modern
world is damaging our children and what we can
do about it. London: Orion.
Pearson, R. (2007). Reassessing paid work and
women’s empowerment: lessons from the global
economy. In A. Cornwall, E. Harrison, & A.
Whitehead (Eds.), Feminisms in development:
Contradictions, contestations and challenges (pp.
-213). London: Zed Press.
Piaget, J. (1933). Social evolution and the new
education. Education Tomorrow, 4, 3-25.
Piper, H., & Stronach, I. (2008). Don’t touch! The
educational story of a panic. London & New York:
Routledge.
Un/thinking children in development 141
Popkewitz, K., & Bloch, M. (2001). Administering
freedom: A history of the present – rescuing the
parent to rescue the child for society. In K.
Hultqvist, & G. Dahlberg (Eds.), Governing the
child in the new millenium (pp. 85-118). New York
& London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Pupavac, V. (1998). Children’s rights and the
infantilisation of citizenship. Human Rights Law
Review (March), 3-8.
Pupavac, V. (2002). The international children’s rights
regime. In D. Chandler (Ed.), Re-thinking Human
Rights: Critical approaches to international politics
(pp. 57-75). London: Palgrave.
Richards, G. (1997). Putting Psychology in its place.
London: Sage.
Rose, N. (1985). The Psychological complex:
Psychology, politics and society in England 1869-
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Rose, N. (1990). Governing the soul: The shaping of
the private self. London: Routledge.
Squire, C. (1990). Feminism as antipsychology. In E.
Burman (Ed.), Feminists and psychological
practice (pp. 76-88). London: Sage (available on
www.discourseunit.com).
Stainton, R. R., & Stainton, R. W. (1998). Word
children. In K. Lesnik-Oberstein (Ed.), Children in
culture: Approaches to childhood (pp. 178-203).
London: Palgrave/Macmillan.
Staples, D. (2007). Women’s work and the ambivalent
gift of entropy. In P. Ticineto Clough with J. Halley
(Eds.), The affective turn: Theorizing the social.
(pp. 119-150). Durham & London: Duke
University Press.
Steedman, C. (1995). Strange dislocations: Childhood
and the idea of human interiority 1780-1930.
London: Routledge.
Sutton-Smith, B., & Kelly B. D. (1984). The idealisation
of play. In P. Smith (Ed.), Play in Animals and
Humans (pp. 305-322). Oxford: Blackwell.
Sutton-Smith, B. (1997). The ambiguity of play.
London: Harvard University Press.
Thorne, B. (1987). Re-visioning women and social
change: Where are the children? Gender &
Society, 1(1), 85-109.
Urwin, C. (1985). Constructing motherhood: The
persuasion of normal development. In C.
Steedman, C. Urwin, & V. Walkerdine (Eds),
Language, gender and childhood (pp. 164-203).
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Walkerdine, V. (1984). Developmental Psychology
and the child-centred Pedagogy. In J. Henriques,
W. Hollway, C. Urwin, C. Venn, & V. Walkerdine
(Eds.), Changing the subject: Psychology, social
regulation and subjectivity (pp. 153-202). London:
Methuen.
Walkerdine, V., & Lucey, H. (1989). Democracy in the
kitchen: Regulating mothers and socialising
daughters. London: Virago.