Child as method: A device to read the geopolitics of childhood

Abstract

Child as method is an analytical approach addressing socio-political practices focusing on the positioning accorded the child/children that highlights the necessary intersections between political economies of childhood with geopolitical dynamics, while countering normalized and hegemonic functions (of abstraction and individualization) typically enacted by figurations of the child/childhood. It is presented as a creative transformation of Chen’s (2010) Asia as method, engaging Mezzadra and Neilson’s (2013) Border as method as well as feminist, specifically intersectionality, theory. The status of ‘method’ in child as method, is considered, alongside its potential contribution to childhood studies and social theory as a psychosocial counter to dominant technologies attending childhood.