The parental milieu: Biosocial connections with nonhuman animals, technologies, and the earth

Abstract

This article develops the concept of the “parental milieu” as a theoretical tool for biosocial research in environmental education and the emerging field of critical life studies. Using the concept of milieu as a catalyst for theoretical inquiry, we map several movements and variations of the term through the 20th century works of von Uexkull, Simondon, and Deleuze and Guattari. This results in the development of four propositions that connect the parental milieu with the territorial milieu of the animal world; the technical milieu of ubiquitous digital networks; the metabolic milieu of consumption; and the trans-qualitative milieu of fluid relations and queer kinships. We conclude with a call for transgenerational research that addresses the ways that the parental milieu intersects with children's environmental learning and ­ethico-aesthetic sensibilities.

Keywords:

• Biosocial research
• critical life studies
• environmental education
• milieu
• parenthood
• posthumanism

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Elizabeth de Freitas and Maggie MacLure, who have helped to shape these ideas through seminars and reading groups in the Biosocial Research Laboratory at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Notes

1 We recognize the pressing need for further research in this area. We are currently preparing a follow-up article that draws on empirical research investigating the role of the parental milieu in modulating the effects of advertising in relation to patterns of consumption within the domestic household.