Misopedia II
Misopédie II
Adult domination in contemporary artistic, scientific, political and medical
La domination adulte dans les discours contemporains artistiques, scientifiques, politiques et médicaux
Published on Tuesday, January 07, 2025
Abstract
Misopaedia refers to the hatred of children (in the same way that misogyny refers to the hatred of women). A first-ever international and transdisciplinary colloquium was held in October 2024 at the University of Limoges. The aim is to continue this movement with a second part of the colloquium 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.
Announcement
University of Limoges
October 9th and 10th 2025
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.
A first-ever international and transdisciplinary colloquium was held in October 2024 at the University of Limoges. The aim is to continue this movement with a second part of the colloquium 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.
Once again, the approach will be multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary in order to analyse how 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.
Submission guidelines
Between half a page and one page, with a bibliography, accompanied by a short biography.
Contact: cecile.kovacshazy@unilim.fr
Deadline for submitting proposals : 1st March 2025:
Proposals will be considered under an anonymous double reading procedure.
10 April 2025: decision by the scientific committee
Scientific committee
- Laelia Benoit, pédopsychiatrie, Yale University, USA
- Tanu Biswas, philosophie de l’éducation, Universitetet i Stavanger, Norvège
- Anandini Dar, child studies, BML Munjal University, India
- Eleonora Florio, psychologie, Università degli studi di Bergamo, Italie
- Cécile Kovacshazy, littératures comparées, Université de Limoges, France
- Mathilde Lévêque, littératures françaises, Université de Sorbonne Paris Nord, France
- Toby Rollo, sciences politiques, Lakehead University, Canada
- John Wall, philosophie, Rutgers University, USA
International and interdisciplinary conference organized by Cécile Kovacshazy, Associate Professor accredited to supervise research in Comparative Literature
Bibliography
- BELL John, Understanding Adultism: A major obstacle to developing positive youth– adult relationships. YouthBuild USA, 1995.
- BENOIT Laelia, Infantisme, Paris, Seuil, 2023.
- BISWAS Tanu, « Childist Theory in the Humanities and Social Sciences », Children & Society, 2023.
- BONNARDEL Yves, La Domination adulte. L’oppression des mineurs, Méréville, Le Hêtre Myriadis, 2015.
- BURMAN Erica, « Child as method and/as Childism: Conceptual-political intersections and tensions », Children & Society, 37 (4), p. 1021-1036, 2023.
- BRAUNMÜHL Ekkehard von, Antipédagogie. Études sur l’abolition de l’éducation [1975], Méréville, Le Hêtre Myriadis, 2024.
- CASTANET Victor, Les Ogres, Paris, Flammarion, 2024.
- Collectif, Émanciper l’enfance. Comprendre la domination adulte pour en finir avec la violence éducative, Méréville, Le Hêtre Myriadis, 2024.
- COTTON Marc-André, Au nom du père : les années Bush et l’héritage de la violence éducative, Paris, L’Instant présent, 2014.
- DELANOË Daniel, Les Châtiments corporels de l’enfant, Toulouse, Érès, 2017.
- DELPHY Christine, « L’état d’exception : la dérogation au droit commun comme fondement de la sphère privée », Nouvelles Questions Féministes, vol. 16, n° 4, p. 73-114, novembre 1995 (repris dans L’Ennemi principal).
- DUMOUCH Rodolphe-Amaury, « Esquisse d’un tableau géographique des droits-libertés pour les jeunes pré-majeurs en Europe », Revue Géographique de l’Est, vol. 58, Espace Légal, la géographie rencontre le droit, 2018.
- DURAND Édouard, 160 000 enfants : violence sexuelle et déni social, Paris, Gallimard, 2024.
- DUSSY Dorothée, Le Berceau des dominations. Anthropologie de l’inceste, Marseille, La Discussion, 2013.
- FLASHER Jack, « Adultism », Adolescence, 13/51, p. 517-523, 1978.
- GARNIER Pascale, « L’agency des enfants. Projet scientifique et politique des Childhood studies », Éducation et sociétés, 35/2, p. 159-173, 2015.
- GRAY Peter, Libre pour apprendre [Free to learn, 2015], Arles, Actes Sud, 2016.
- KOVACSHAZY Cécile, MILOVANOVIC Daliborka, DELANOË Daniel, ALLEGRET Gabriel, « Les mots pour dire la domination adulte et les violences faites aux enfants », L’Humanité, 12 février 2024.
- LANCY David F., Anthropologie de l’enfance. Perspectives sur la place et le statut des enfants [2008], Méréville, Le Hêtre Myriadis, 2024.
- LEFRANÇOIS, Brenda A., « Adultism », Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, Thomas Teo (dir.), New York, Springer, p. 47-49, 2014.
- LÉVÊQUE Mathilde, « Les Childhood Studies en France : esquisses d’un domaine à construire », Magasin des enfants, 9 février 2017 (en ligne).
- LIEBEL Manfred et MEADE Philip, Die Macht der Erwachsenen über die Kinder. Eine kritische Einführung, Berlin, Bertz + Fischer, 2023.
- MAUREL Olivier, La Violence éducative, un trou noir dans les sciences humaines, Paris, L’Instant Présent, 2012.
- MAUSE Lloyd De, The History of Childhood: The untold Story of Child Abuse, London, Bellew, 1974.
- MENDEL Gérard, Pour décoloniser l’enfant : socio-psychanalyse de l’autorité, Paris, Payot, 1971.
- MILLER Alice, C’est pour ton bien [Am Anfang war Erziehung, 1980] Paris, Aubier, 1985.
- MILOVANOVIC Daliborka, Punk Parenting, Méréville, Le Hêtre Myriadis, 2024.
- Mouvements, « Interroger la domination adulte », Vanina Mozziconacci, Juliette Rennes, Nicolas Duval-Valachs, Marie Esclafit, Régis Revenin, Claire Batailler (éd.), Paris, La Découverte, n° 115, 2023.
- NOVAT Lucile, De grandes dents. Enquête sur un petit malentendu, Paris, Zones, 2024.
- PARDO Thierry, Au nom du pire, Méréville, Le Hêtre Myriadis, 2020.
- LEPRI Jean-Pierre, « Éducation » authentique : pourquoi ?, Forges-les-Bains, Myriadis, 2017.
- PITERBRAUT-MERX Tal, « Enfance et vulnérabilité. Ce que la politisation de l’enfance fait au concept de vulnérabilité », Éducation et socialisation, n° 57, 2020.
- PIETERBRAUT-MERX Tal, La Domination oubliée. Politiser les rapports adulte-enfant, Toulouse, éditions Blast, 2024.
- ROMAGNY Vincent (éd.), Politiser l’enfance, Laurel Parker Book et Burn-août, 2021.
- SALMONA Muriel, Le Livre noir des violences sexuelles, Paris, Dunod, 2013, rééd. 2018 et 2022.
- SINNO Neige, Triste Tigre, Paris, P.O.L., 2023.
- SUNDHALL Jeanette, « A Political Space for Children? The Age Order and Children’s Right to Participation », Social Inclusion, 5 (3), p. 164-171, 2017.
- WADSWORTH Sarah, 2015. « The Year of the Child: Children’s Literature, Childhood Studies, and the Turn to Childism », American Literary History, 27 (2), p. 331-341, 2015.
- WALL John, « From Childhood Studies to Childism: Reconstructing the Scholarly and Social Imaginations », Children’s Geographies, 17 (6), p. 1-15, 2019.
- YOUNG-BRUEHL Elisabeth, Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children, Yale University Press, 2012.
Subjects
- Europe (Main category)
Places
- Faculté des Lettres et Sciences humaines - 39 E rue Camille Guérin
Limoges, France (87)
Event attendance modalities
Hybrid event (on site and online)
Date(s)
- Saturday, March 01, 2025
Attached files
Keywords
- misopedie, adultisme, domination adulte, enfantisme, infantisme, discrimination, âgisme,
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 II », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, January 07, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/13165
