Event overview
This is a joint meeting of the BSA Childhood Study Group and the BSA Families and Relationships Study Group.
Rosalind Edwards (University of Southampton)
Val Gillies (London South Bank University)
Nicola Horsley (London South Bank University)
In this paper we outline early findings from a project funded by the Faraday Institute as part of the Uses and Abuses of Biology program. The last decade or so has witnessed the quality of nurturing received in the first three years of a child’s life accorded increasing significance both in determining individual outcomes in the future but also the wellbeing and stability of society as a whole. Accounts of the biological mechanisms thought to underlie personal and societal dysfunction have focused in particular on the detrimental effects of sub-optimal parenting on infant brains. It is suggested that ‘brain architecture’ is formed during the first years and that the ‘wrong type of parenting can have a profound effect on children’s life chances. As we will demonstrate, this narrative is increasingly being appropriated to justify essentialist accounts of gender and class. Mothers are presented as 'naturally' better attuned to their infant’s needs, while ‘cycle of deprivation’ theorizing is deployed to biologise poverty and disadvantage. Drawing on documentary analysis and interviews with health and early years practitioners and high profile public figures advocating neuroscience as evidence base, we interrogate the emergence of such ideas and explore to what extent they are situated with the broader ‘neuromolecular gaze’ identified by Nikolas Rose and Joelle Abi-Rached.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Jun 2013 | 4:30pm - 6:30pm |
Accessibility
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