Violence and the making of the subject

This was the title of the first seminar in the ESRC series on violence and childhood: international perspectives. This was a great start to the series bringing together practioners from Everychild, Plan International, and the former director of Children's Services in Haringery, Sharon Shoesmith, with academics working on how we understand the different kinds of violence that young children experience in their everyday lives. Professor Pamela Reynolds opened with her paper 'On being responsibel for any child: governance, subjectivity and violence'. Professor Alma Gottlieb considered whether breastfeeding and enemas might be considered 'First acts of violence'. Dr Neal Hazel discussed his research on how young people feel about being physically punished by their parents and Sylvia Meichsner, a Phd student at the University of Essex, shared her research on a Mexican orphanage. In the morning we heard from Omattie Madray about Everychild's work in Guyuna and Cesar Bazan on Plan's campaign against violence in schools. Sharon Shoesmith opened the morning session with reflections on how children living in poverty can be safeguarded. Both sessions were recorded and webcams of the speakers (except Sylvia) can be found at the website internationalchildhoodstudies.org.
Breakout groups met after the presentations to discuss how to bring theory and practice into dialogue with one another. Key points from the discussion included: is the term 'structural violence' useful or is it a eupehmism for power; what are the best methods for researching everyday forms of violence; how do we bring more historical depth to our understanding of children's lives and practices of childhood? are the common experiences of childhood violence more important than the different cultural contexts in which these are enacted? What do we mean by violence - is it physical or does it include mental and psychic pain. Is violence an individual perception or a social fact? Women appear to be more involved in violence against young children than men do. Do violent contexts generate violence against children? Does the intent behind acts of 'violence' matter - if it is socially sanctioned does this make the experience of pain something other than violence?
Clearly the seminar raised many questions and started an important process of sharing experiences and thinking about how to theorise these practices and emotions. We are interested in how young people view violence - if you work with young people please ask them to consider joining the facebook group 'childhood and violence'