Globalization, History, Theory & Writing

The “Local” and The “Global” of Contemporary

Children’s Culture

Overview:

• This lecture will highlight:1. Contemporary children’s culture on both a local and

global scale

2. How international migration (of more than just people) affects children and their culture

3. The challenges globalization presents to researchers working with children

4. The importance of context and ethnography to conducting research with children

To do this we will unpack

1. Globalization

2. The Three voices of CCC: i. institutional (about children)

ii. Institutional (for children)

iii. Children’s voices

As seen through

• The local and the global of children’s rights• The local and the global of popular culture

• The local and the global of research methodologies

GLOBALIZATION

Is Really About Voice, Power, & Imperialism

Its a Loaded Term -As difficult to define as “culture”

BASIC METAPHORS:• Removal of barriers• The world as Infinitely smaller/ infinitely larger

EARLY INTERPRETATIONS• As a global village (McLuhan, 1962 )• As disjuncture: ie. “5 scapes” (Appadiurai,, 1990)• As advanced capitalism (Jameson, 1991)• Cultural Imperialism (Schiller, 1991)

MORE RECENT RE-INTERPRETATIONS• As hybridization ( Nederveen Pieterse, 1994)• As a process of negotiation (Storey, 2003)• As a space for resistance (Kahn & Kellner, 2005,

Buckingham 2010)

OUR definition of globalization

“The movement, interaction, sharing, co-option, and even imposition of economic goods and services, cultures, ideas, ideologies, people’s lives and lived experiences, food, plants, animals, labour, learning, play, practices, and knowledge(s) across time and space(s) previously thought to be impossible or at the very least improbable.” (Gennaro, 2010)

BUT:» ITS NOT A-HISTORICAL» IT IS NOT STATIC» IT IS NOT FINITE» IT IS NOT INNOCENT

Its Frames The Child’s Experience

• “It appals us that the West can desire, extract and claim ownership of our ways of knowing, our imagery, the things we create and produce, and then simultaneously reject the people who created and developed those ideas and seek to deny them further opportunities to be creators of their own culture and own nations.”

(Linda Tuhiwai Smith, 26)

History, Theory, & Writing

HISTORY:• Its about story telling-

– but who’s stories are being told?

THEORY:• Is about understanding the dynamics and relations of power in

society» ADULT vs CHILD» POWER vs POWERLESS» REPRESENTATION vs REALITY» FASLE GENEROSITY vs ADULT ALLIES

WRITING:• Is about naming the word and naming the world.

• The power of language

We must flip the map

History, Theory, & Writing - Flipping the Map

CHILDREN AS:

•HEROES IN HISTORY

(Davis, 2010)

•CITIZENS IN THEORY & ACTION

(O’Neil, 2010)

•WRITERS OF THIER OWN EXPERIENCE

(Buckingham, 2010)

“

The Need for Praxis & Critical Theory in Children’s Studies

“ One cannot expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people. Such a program constitutes cultural invasion...

The starting point for organizing the program content of education or political action must be the present, existential, concrete situation, reflecting the aspirations of the people.” (Paulo Freire, 95)

The Local and The Global

• The global does not eliminate the local or its importance

• Instead it reinforces the need for authentic dialogue between: dominant and subaltern, core and periphery, oppressor and oppressed, institutions and individuals, adults and children

• Its about –voice- access- agency-

The Three Voices of Contemporary Children’s

Culture

Where CCC happens

How children are talked

about

How children unpack

those stories

The stories children are

told

THREE VOICES

1. Institutional Voices: about children

2. Institutional Voices:

for children

3. Children’s Voices

It is at the intersection of all three that we find access to contemporary children’s culture

Institutional- ABOUT CHILDREN

The UNCRC (1989)

PROS• Its “universal”- a global

doc.• ratified by 192 countries• provides definitions of key

terms like: child or best interest principle

• was drafted through continual dialogue with many different partners globally

• It’s a convention not a declaration

CONS• Its “universal”- it

universalizes • Too focused on protection

rights• The creation of “norms”

has a Western bias• just because it was

signed doesn’t mean its being implemented

• No REAL legal recourse

Silent Citizens (2007)

Pros

• A government report• Clearly states how

Canada had failed in its commitment to:– the UNCRC and – to its own youth– to its aboriginal

communities

• Emphasizes the major role that poverty plays in this

Cons• Was published in 2007 but with

very little follow up• written by adults and for adults• The language, text, form, and

length all prevent access to children

• fails in its recommendations to call for legislation to ensure that children are included in this process

• Focus on protection • The title assumes that children

are citizens!

Building a Cultural Bridge (Twum-Danso, 2010) Local & GlobalFor the UNCRC• Open ended definitions allow

for local interpretations• The UNCRC needs to be seen

as a work in progress (not a final stance)

• It can be used as a starting point for local discussions, legislation, and action

• Internal discourse is needed– Engaging the public– Raising their awareness– Encouraging debate,

artistic expression, and soc/pol action

For Silent Citizens• Has called for more local

engagement by Provincial Government with youth

• Has called for an increased emphasis on eliminating poverty at Federal Level

• Has called for a Children’s Commissioner

• Has attempted to include local NGOs and children in the discussion

• It can be used as a starting point for local discussions, legislation, and action

• Internal discourse is needed

Institutional- About Childrenexample: THE UNCRC

• Children in the global present are heavily represented in institutional texts

• HOWEVER: the representation is ceremonial, iconic, and empty

• The reality is what Macedo (2000) calls

the cultural schizophrenia of marginalized

groups: “being present and yet not visible,

being visible and yet not present.”

THREE VOICES

1. Institutional Voices: about children

2. Institutional Voices:

for children

3. Children’s Voices

It is at the intersection of all three that we find access to contemporary children’s culture

Institutional- FOR CHILDREN

• Often found in media and children's literature (and how these institutional ideas are explained to children)

• Are spaces both for dominant and alternate expressions

• Can best be explored using Kellner’s 3 pronged approach (2009) that incorporates:

» political economy, textual analysis and audience reception

CULTURE

representation is NEVER proportionate*”

”

SOCIETY

Children’s own culture

IDEOLOGIES

MEDIA/POPULAR CULTURE

CULTURAL INSUITUTIONS ADULTS

Media reproduces Bias & Stereotypes

According to Michael Bugeja in Living Ethics Across Media Platforms (2007)

• Media create perceptions, for better or worse• And since media professionals often depict

society without fully experiencing diversity of it • Coverage has a tendency to promote

stereotypes instead of diversity

*Tolerance is needed*

Bias or Tolerance?

How does meaning get made?

production

production

consumption

consumption

NEGOTIATION

Institutional- For Childrenexample: Children & Popular Culture

NEGOTIATION

Popular Culture as “contested space”

• The place where economic difference:• is made “real”• legitimated• crystallized

• This is the making, marking, and maintaining of social difference (Bourdieu,1987)

• But it is a contested space and therefore it is dominant

• NOT determined (Hall, 1980)

• Its about a negotiation between the local and the global

THREE VOICES

1. Institutional Voices: about children

2. Institutional Voices:

for children

3. Children’s Voices

It is at the intersection of all three that we find access to contemporary children’s culture

Using Anthropology to study children’s own culture

Spaces and Third Spaces

A Re-Interpretation of the Public Sphere?

• Access to children’s third spaces connects to Habermas’s ideas of the public sphere (1962)

• And raises the notion that

a) Children need access to a public sphere

b) It may already exist• As Kellner argues (2000) there is

an importance of conceptualizing the public sphere as not as ONE, but as MANY, overlapping- and often in conflict

Children’s Voicesexample: Researching WITH Children

Requires a generational and a macro approach

(James & Christensen, 2009)

This means asking questions about research methods

According to Smith (1999) practicing “Indigenous Research” means asking (both before and throughout):

1. Whose research is it?

2. Who owns it?

3. Whose interests does it serve?

4. Who will benefit from it?

5. Who has designed its questions and framed its scope?

6. Who will carry it out?

7. Who will write it up?

8. How will its results be disseminated?

This means asking questions about research methodologies

Questions to consider• Can the subaltern speak

(Spivak, 1988)?• What does it mean to

speak back to dominant norms?

• What does it look like

when the empire writes back to the centre (Rushdie, 1982)

Spaces to find feedback

• David Buckingham’s work at London University, and Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media (2010)

• Or Kellner and Kahn’s work on oppositional politics on the internet (2005)

• Our students work with kids

THIS IS WHAT WE DO!

HUMA 1970A •Shoreham Literacy Project•Kids With Camera

HUMA 2690•STOMP•Kids With Crayons

HUMA 4142•Kids and Facebook

CHYS 4P16•Local voices to global children

Youth Voices Speak Back

Concluding Thoughts

“When indigenous peoples become the researchers and not merely the researched, the activity of research is transformed. Questions are framed differently, priorities are ranked differently, problems are defined differently, people participate on different terms.”

(Smith, 193)