When intersectionality met childhood studies: the dilemmas of a travelling concept

Abstract

Childhood studies/geographies have a longstanding interest in questions around multiple social inequalities and identities in diverse socio-spatial contexts, but have not yet seriously considered the politics of intersectionality. Importing intersectionality into childhood studies is neither a straightforward nor an unproblematic process. We suggest that the question that childhood studies/geographies scholars must confront is how intersectionality can be used in this interdisciplinary field in ways which recognise and take seriously the intellectual history and labour of Black women and preserve the integrity of intersectionality’s radical praxis of emancipatory knowledge production and collective action for social justice. This article examines how intersectionality and its emancipatory politics might be preserved, strengthened and enhanced when it is operationalised in a context of childhood studies/geographies.

Keywords:

• Intersectionality
• childhood studies/geographies
• inequalities
• race
• praxis
• embodiment

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the people who commented on an earlier version of this article including Prof Kay Tisdall, Prof John Davis, Dr Marlies Kustatscher, Cara Blaisdell and the two anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The term ‘Majority world’ is used in this paper to refer to the majority of the world's population who live in Africa, Asia and Latin America and seeks to shift the balance ‘of our world views that frequently privilege … ‘western’ and ‘northern’ populations and issues' (Punch and Tisdall 2012, 241). Understandings of childhoods oftentimes privileges experiences and perspectives from the Minority world – Europe, North America and Australia. The use of the words ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ world are problematic, as they homogenize both world regions, however, the use of the above terms ‘at least invites reflection on the unequal relations between them’ (Punch 2003, 278).

2. All participants' names are pseudonyms. Information regarding children's social characteristics was provided by the nursery school secretaries and from the forms that parents/caregivers completed while registering their child. The research however explored children's own perceptions of social identities and indicated the complexity of these labels. Also, not all families identified with a religion.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Economic and Social Research Council [grant number PTA-031-2006-00428] and Scottish Universities Insight Institute – Knowledge Exchange Programmes.