Vaulting the turnstiles: dialoguing and translating childhood and agencies from Chile, Latin America

ABSTRACT

When aiming to create spaces for dialogue between social studies of childhood in the Global North and South, there are many aspects to consider. One of them is the complexities of bringing together different histories and languages as they shape differentiated understandings of the field. In this article, we focus on agency, one of the main concepts that has shaped the New Social Studies of Childhood (NSSC). We discuss how childhood studies in the Global South have contributed to the development of agency in NSSC within English-speaking dialogues. We introduce the notion of agencia, the Spanish equivalent of agency, exploring its connotations in childhood studies and advocacy groups in Latin America. Finally, we bring together the different aspects of agency and agencia as they have been discussed throughout the paper, exploring how from these perspectives we can approach one specific event: secondary school students vaulting over the turnstiles at the metro stations in Santiago, Chile. This event initiated what has been known as the Chilean outbreak of October 2019, and the origin of the current constitutional process from which children have been ambiguously included/excluded.

KEYWORDS:

• Agency
• childhood studies
• Global South
• Latin America
• Chile
• social outbreak

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support of Iniciativa Científica Milenio, ANID- NCS17_027 (Núcleo Milenio Movilidades y Territorios_MOVYT); Proyecto FRO19101 InES de investigadores lideres; and ANID Beca Doctorado Nacional 2021–2025, during the writing of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Opening the discussion on agency (and other concepts involved both in the study of childhood and discussions on agency) towards other disciplinary developments constitutes a necessary and overdue move in the social studies of childhood. However, this discussion is beyond the scope of this article, and we hope to take on this lead (and encourage others to do so) in the future.

2. Mapuche is one of the indigenous groups of Chile, currently in conflict with the Chilean State for the usurpation of their lands, environmental exploitation of their territories, generalised discrimiantion, prosecution of their leaders, and militarisation of their territories.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Proyecto FRO19101 InES de investigadores lideres; Iniciativa Científica Milenio, ANID- NCS17_027 (Núcleo Milenio Movilidades y Territorios_MOVYT); and ANID Beca Doctorado Nacional 2021-2025.

Notes on contributors

Susana Cortés-Morales

Susana Cortés-Morales is an anthropologist and Doctor in Education (University of Leeds), specialised in childhood studies and geographies of children. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile.Her main research interests are children´s mobilities, children’s common worlds and children living in pandemic times.

Camilo Morales-Retamal

Camilo Morales-Retamal is a clinical psychologist (Universidad Diego Portales), Master in Clinical Psychoanalysis with children and young people (Universidad Alberto Hurtado), currently a doctoral student in Social Science (Universidad de Chile). He is an associate professor at Universidad de Chile School of Social Sciences and coordinator of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Childhood. As such, he has developed diverse research and training initiatives in the field of childhood public policies from a rights perspective. His research has focused on public policies transformation processes in childhood protection and social and political participation of children in diverse contexts.