Misopedia. Adult domination in contemporary artistic, scientific, political and medical
Misopédie. La domination adulte dans les discours contemporains artistiques, scientifiques, politiques et médicaux
Published on Monday, March 04, 2024
Abstract
Misopaedia refers to the hatred of children (in the same way that misogyny refers to the hatred of women). Our aim is to show through a multidisciplinary lens that misopaedia is internalized and trivialized, therefore overlapping discourses on young people. In this effort, we will bring together literary and cinematographic fictions, but also other forms of fictional discourses found in medicine, psychology, the social sciences and politics.
Announcement
University of Limoges
October 3rd and 4th 2024
Argument
Misopaedia refers to the hatred of children (in the same way that misogyny refers to the hatred of women): the most often unconscious feeling of contempt brought upon the youth, a rejection of the children from the ways of the polis. Being or having been a child is the one and only shared universal experience for every human being on the planet. And yet, generation after generation, humans seem unable to empathize with childhood after outgrowing it. What we call here misopaedia might not be universal, but it is fairly widespread, and it varies according to time and place.
The fact is most adults would strongly refuse to endure what they impose on children on a daily basis. If they were in a capacity to defend themselves, adults wouldn’t agree to: being forced to sit still for hours, when physical movement is a basic need, being shouted at, being given precise times for urinating, being hit, being threatened, being blackmailed, being punished for showing emotions (remember that anger comes along as a natural expression when a limit has not been acknowledged... the egg comes from the hen, that comes from the egg), being mocked with oppressive sarcasm, and so on.
Our concern is precisely that children in today’s society have no way of defending themselves. They are physically weaker, they have no financial, social or emotional autonomy and, most importantly, they are not protected by the law. To this day, children are the only population group still deprived of fundamental rights, or in other words confined to the legal status of ‘minor’. The same was true about women in France until 1938, if not until 1965.
This violence is experienced as a continuum. In France in 2024, the authorities estimate that 1child is sexually assaulted every 3 minutes. Upstream, this alarming number coincides with very strong habitus of dominating and overpowering the children, mostly in the name of ‘education’.
To date, a large body of international scientific work has shown domination and discrimination as phenomena, in the light of ethnic or racial affiliation, gender, sexual orientation and religious choice. Meanwhile, the study of ageism (age discrimination) is developing, but it generally concerns the oldest people or the ‘young’, i.e. people who are no longer children. Surprisingly, the various researches regarding to care, in the United States and France, almost systematically dismiss the huge part of the population that cannot survive without receiving care: children.
This colloquium will center around adult or adultist domination and discrimination of children. Not only from a legal and psychological point of view, but also through various fictional representations which we know to be of vital importance in shaping individual and collective visions. This will hopefully contribute to changing behaviors towards the youngest members of our society.
Our aim is to show through a multidisciplinary lens that misopaedia is internalized and trivialized, therefore overlapping discourses on young people. In this effort, we will bring together literary and cinematographic fictions, but also other forms of fictional discourses found in medicine, psychology, the social sciences and politics.
Our focus will be on contemporary France, without precluding an analysis of misopaedia in other countries.
Among the proposals for the colloquium, we will be particularly interested in those who examine:
- The presence of misopaedia and adultism in artistic fictions
- The presence of misopaedia and adultism in normative or colloquial discourses originating from those claiming to be 'experts' rooted in scientific discipline: 'good advice' in the medical, psychological and educational fields.
- The discursive trivialization of violence against children, particularly among politicians
- The cognitive dissociation concerning the effectiveness of school as a place of fulfillment and egalitarianism.
- The confusion between instruction and education, and the cultural bias that looks at prepared standardized intervention in all learning as imperative (educationism).
- Reflection on childism, etc.
These approaches on child studies are already abundant in other countries. The aim of this colloquium is to stimulate their emergence in the field of French research. And also to create international links in this research field. As Olivier Maurel, a historian of educational violence, puts it, this research is currently a "black hole for the human sciences". It is time for things to change.
Organization
International conference organized by Cécile Kovacshazy
With the help of Daliborka Milovanovic
Submission guidelines
30 April 2024: deadline for submitting proposals.
Contact: cecilekova@yahoo.fr / cecile.kovacshazy@unilim.fr (between half a page and one page), accompanied by a short bio-bibliography)
Proposals will be considered under an anonymous double reading procedure.
12 May 2024: decision by the scientific committee
Scientific committee
- Cécile Kovacshazy (littératures comparées),
- Daliborka Milovanovic (éditrice),
- Laelia Benoit (pédopsychiatrie),
- Tanu Biswas (philosophie),
- Daniel Delanoë (psychiatrie et anthropologie),
- Olivier Maurel (histoire).
Bibliography
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Subjects
- Thought (Main category)
- Periods > Modern > Twenty-first century
- Society > Sociology > Ages of life
Places
- Université de Limoges
Limoges, France (87)
Date(s)
- Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Attached files
Keywords
- misopédie, domination adulte, adultisme
Contact(s)
- Cécile Kovacshazy
courriel : cecile [dot] kovacshazy [at] unilim [dot] fr
Information source
- Cécile Kovacshazy
courriel : cecile [dot] kovacshazy [at] unilim [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Misopedia. Adult domination in contemporary artistic, scientific, political and medical », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, March 04, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/vy60
