From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Childism
can refer either to advocacy for empowering children as a subjugated group or to prejudice and/or discrimination against children or childlike qualities.
[1]
It can operate thus both as a positive term for a movement, like the term
feminism
, as well as a critical term to identify age-based prejudice and discrimination against children, like the term
racism
. The latter concept finds it critical equivalence in similar concepts such as
ageism
discrimination against elderly people,
[2]
adultism
adult power and adult norms
[3]
or
patriarchy
. The concept is first described and explored in an article by
Chester M. Pierce
and Gail B. Allen in 1975.
[4]
It was used in time in the 1990s in literary theory by Peter Hunt to refer to "to read as children."
[5]
An extensive treatment of childism as a negative phenomenon is found in
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's
last work, published posthumously,
Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children
.
[6]
In the field of
childhood studies
, and most commonly in Europe, childism is a positive phenomenon based on
John Wall
's work since 2006 and book,
Ethics in Light of Childhood
.
[7]
Recently, the
Childism Institute
has been formed at Rutgers University Camden, US, holding its inaugural meeting on 11 June 2020. The Childism Institute is a network of international researchers and advocates devoted to "empowering children by critiquing [adultist] norms and structures".
[8]
Among other things, the Childism Institute maintains a
database
of research which either employs the concept of childism or is in close alignment with it.
In the field of international human rights studies childism is a critical phenomenon based on Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's work, used to explore intersectional discrimination against children that challenge the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
[9]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Childism"
.
Wiktionary
.
- ^
Weir, Kirsten (March 1, 2023).
"Ageism is one of the last socially acceptable prejudices. Psychologists are working to change that"
.
American Psychological Association
.
- ^
Oto, Ryan (2023-10-02).
"
"This is for us, not them": Troubling adultism through a pedagogy of solidarity in youth organizing and activism"
.
Theory & Research in Social Education
.
51
(4): 530?558.
doi
:
10.1080/00933104.2023.2208538
.
ISSN
0093-3104
.
- ^
Pierce, Chester M.; Allen, Gail B. (1975).
"Childism"
.
Psychiatric Annals
.
5
(7): 15?24.
doi
:
10.3928/0048-5713-19750701-04
.
- ^
Hunt, Peter (1991).
Criticism, Theory, and Children’s Literature
. Basil Blackwell.
ISBN
0-631-16231-3
.
- ^
Young-Bruehl, Elisabeth (2012).
Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children
. Yale University Press.
ISBN
978-0-300-17311-6
.
- ^
Wall, John, Ethics in Light of Childhood. Georgetown University Press, 2011.
ISBN
9781589016927
- ^
"About"
.
Childism Institute
. Retrieved
2021-05-07
.
- ^
Adami, Rebecca; Dineen, Katy (2021-06-15).
"Discourses of Childism: How covid-19 Has Unveiled Prejudice, Discrimination and Social Injustice against Children in the Everyday"
.
The International Journal of Children's Rights
.
29
(2): 353?370.
doi
:
10.1163/15718182-29020001
.
ISSN
1571-8182
.