Striated agency and smooth regulation: kindergarten mealtime as an ambiguous space for the construction of child and adult relations

TY - JOUR

T1 - Striated agency and smooth regulation

T2 - kindergarten mealtime as an ambiguous space for the construction of child and adult relations

AU - Hansen, Stine Rosenlund

AU - Hansen, Mette Weinreich

AU - Kristensen, Niels Heine

PY - 2017/3

Y1 - 2017/3

N2 - Deploying an everyday life approach, this article focuses on the kindergarten meal, defined as a space in which humans, materials and discursive elements interact. The article identifies and discusses two co-existing perspectives on the everyday meals that emphasise children as future beings and here-and-now beings. Through the concepts of smoothing and striation the paper discusses how these perspectives produce different mechanisms of regulation and agency, and position the eaters differently. The paper emphasises kindergarten mealtime as an ambiguous space that does not offer simple discussions about good and bad meal situations. The paper thereby adds to the existing literature within children’s geographies which emphasise interactional, relational and material aspects of children’s lives. It does so by revisiting some concepts, striation and smoothing, that has been used to explore children’s spaces and child–adult relations, but argue that these concepts describe ambivalent and complex processes in children’s and adult’s everyday lives.

AB - Deploying an everyday life approach, this article focuses on the kindergarten meal, defined as a space in which humans, materials and discursive elements interact. The article identifies and discusses two co-existing perspectives on the everyday meals that emphasise children as future beings and here-and-now beings. Through the concepts of smoothing and striation the paper discusses how these perspectives produce different mechanisms of regulation and agency, and position the eaters differently. The paper emphasises kindergarten mealtime as an ambiguous space that does not offer simple discussions about good and bad meal situations. The paper thereby adds to the existing literature within children’s geographies which emphasise interactional, relational and material aspects of children’s lives. It does so by revisiting some concepts, striation and smoothing, that has been used to explore children’s spaces and child–adult relations, but argue that these concepts describe ambivalent and complex processes in children’s and adult’s everyday lives.

KW - agency

KW - Child–adult relations

KW - mealtime

KW - regulation

KW - smoothing

KW - striation

U2 - 10.1080/14733285.2016.1238040

DO - 10.1080/14733285.2016.1238040

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84989270860

SN - 1473-3285

VL - 15

SP - 237

EP - 248

JO - Children's Geographies

JF - Children's Geographies

IS - 2

ER -