Recovering childhood: play, pedagogy, and the rise of psychological knowledge in contemporary urban China.
In the past few decades, China has witnessed the emergence of a psychological discourse of childhood.This new discourse portrays children as persons with unique emotional needs and seeks to redefine childhood as a time of play and relaxation rather than study or toil. Drawing on the results of ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai's schools and homes in 2004-2005, the present article describes the complex ways Shanghai's teachers and parents engage with this normalizing, developmental discourse. It argues that the rise of a psychological discourse of childhood signals a shift in Chinese modes of governing school and family life, and in current conceptualizations of the child-as-citizen and the child-as-subject in postsocialist, urban China.
Naftali
Orna
O
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D005191:Family Characteristics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history; D005192:Family Health / Q000208:ethnology; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D010988:Play and Playthings / Q000523:psychology; D011584:Psychology / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D012922:Social Change / Q000266:history; D013334:Students / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D013663:Teaching / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014504:Urban Health / Q000266:history; D014505:Urban Population / Q000266:history