This edited collection contends that the figure of the child is foundational to the workings of biopolitical power yet remains undertheorized. The study of nineteenth-century biopolitics offers a theoretical framework that promises to increase our understanding of how modern democracies manage their subjects. Recent scholarship has invigorated interrogations into forms of state governance that operate at the level of population, a biological phenomenon defined as a group of individuals linked by racialized fictions of biological commonality. This collection seeks to recognize and position critical childhood studies as essential to these interrogations. The essays theorize the role of representations of children and childhood as tools of biopolitical governance in America in the long nineteenth century. They variously explore how the interrelated and overlapping qualities integral to our understandings of the child and childhood are readily deployed by biopolitical power. The collection is organized into three sections that illustrate how these qualities enable the sorting of human beings into populations targeted for reform, exploitation, and disposal.
Copyright:
2025
Book Details
Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
266 Pages
ISBN-13:
9781040298466
Related ISBNs:
9781003435068,
9781040298428,
9781032563527
Publisher:
Taylor & Francis
Date of Addition:
04/16/25
Copyrighted By:
selection and editorial matter, Lucia Hodgson and Allison Giffen
