Governing Childhood into the 21st Century: Biopolitical Technologies of Childhood Management and Education

Neoliberal logics of government shaping childhood today produce market-based frameworks for understanding childhood risks. In this timely work, Nadesan argues that these frameworks encourage affluent parents to pursue individualized technologies of the self to reduce risks posed to their children’s future success. In contrast, neoliberal market frameworks regard lower-income children as “risky,” and therefore deploy targeted disciplines aimed at reducing economic and biopolitical risks to the nation. “Risks” posed by poor children abroad derive from, and legitimize, a new U.S. security discourse that governs primarily through strategic containment and normalization, yet doesn’t hesitate to employ repression. The current global economic crisis points to the limits and paradoxes of the neoliberal logics governing populations, presenting future “risks” for twenty-first century childhood.