Projects / Programmes
The Social Life of Chores: Rethinking Work in Childhood
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.03.02 |
Humanities |
Anthropology |
Social and cultural anthropology |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S220 |
Social sciences |
Cultural anthropology, ethnology |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.04 |
Social Sciences |
Sociology |
childhood, work, leisure, participatory visual methods
Researchers (1)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
30662 |
PhD Barbara Turk Niskač |
Anthropology |
Head |
2019 - 2022 |
127 |
Organisations (1)
Abstract
This project aims to rethink conceptualizations of work, leisure and childhood by looking at how childhoods are constructed within different cultural contexts, political and socio-economic circumstances. Furthermore it aims to provide an in-depth analysis of children’s meaning making strategies, namely how children make meanings through their everyday activities in the context of work and leisure. Thus it brings children’s perspectives to the forefront of this study, and situates them along the perspectives of adults. Designed as an ethnographic study, this project recognizes the urgent need to rethink both popular discourse and scholarship on childhood by providing a more holistic and empirically grounded understanding of children’s everyday lives. The project seeks to challenge dominant discourses of childhoods, which juxtapose work and play/leisure time and confine learning to an educational context. The project intends to provide empirically grounded understanding of children’s everyday activities in the context of work and leisure, and in-depth analysis of the relationship of cultural context (urban vs. rural), political and socio-economic circumstances to different conceptualizations of work, leisure and childhood. It is progressing beyond the current state-of-the-art by showing how conceptualisations of work and leisure in discourses about childhood have been changing in the Slovene case study during different historical periods, and analysing how children’s everyday lives are situated within current post-socialist neoliberal economic system.
Four main questions inform this project: 1.) How can an understanding of the changing conceptualizations of work and leisure in discourses about childhood disclose specific production of a child in historical context (e.g. socialist child, child as neoliberal subject); 2.) How do specific conceptualizations of work and leisure relate to different cultural contexts (urban vs. rural), political and socio-economic circumstances, and how these different conceptualizations manifest in children’s everyday lives; 3.) How can a study of children’s perspectives on work and leisure contribute to a new understanding of their meaning-making strategies, and broader conceptualizations of work and leisure; 4.) How can we re-think conceptualizations of work, leisure and childhood by looking at how childhoods are constructed within different cultural contexts (urban vs. rural), political and socio-economic circumstances, and how children actively make meaning through their everyday engagement in work and leisure?
The project employs innovative interdisciplinary qualitative methodology, namely critical discourse analysis, semi-structured interviews, participatory visual methods such as drawing, mapping, participatory photography, digital narratives and cellphilming, and participant observation. The research findings will be widely disseminated through scientific articles aiming at high-ranking journals, conferences, seminars, host lecture and outreach activities.
Significance for science
Anthropology of Childhood is not established at the department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Ljubljana. Thus, the potential impact of the proposed research project is firstly to enhance the development of the studies of children and childhoods in cultural and social anthropology in Slovenia, and secondly to enhance contemporary methodological approaches in research of children and childhoods. The proposed project brings into discourses about childhood perspectives of cultural and social anthropology while it is still rare in Slovenia that anthropological studies would focus on children as subjects of the research.
With an in-depth understanding of children’s participation in work and leisure, the project will make advancement within the action field by deconstructing discourses about childhood, which in contemporary policy-making and scholarship focuses on play/leisure and schooling/academic achievement opposed to work. In the broader interdisciplinary context, a theoretical framework helps to rethink both popular understandings and existing scholarship on childhood as it brings new insights on children’s meaning making strategies and conceptualizations of work, leisure and childhood in relation to different cultural contexts (urban vs. rural) as well as political and socio-economic context.
Significance for the country
Anthropology of Childhood is not established at the department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Ljubljana. Thus, the potential impact of the proposed research project is firstly to enhance the development of the studies of children and childhoods in cultural and social anthropology in Slovenia, and secondly to enhance contemporary methodological approaches in research of children and childhoods. The proposed project brings into discourses about childhood perspectives of cultural and social anthropology while it is still rare in Slovenia that anthropological studies would focus on children as subjects of the research.
With an in-depth understanding of children’s participation in work and leisure, the project will make advancement within the action field by deconstructing discourses about childhood, which in contemporary policy-making and scholarship focuses on play/leisure and schooling/academic achievement opposed to work. In the broader interdisciplinary context, a theoretical framework helps to rethink both popular understandings and existing scholarship on childhood as it brings new insights on children’s meaning making strategies and conceptualizations of work, leisure and childhood in relation to different cultural contexts (urban vs. rural) as well as political and socio-economic context.
