Call for papers: “The Poetics and Politics of Child Culture(s)”

The interdisciplinary research network BIN-Norden, along with the Centre for the studies of children’s culture, welcomes you to the conference The Poetics and Politics of Child Culture(s) scheduled for May 8-9, 2025 in Stockholm!

The conference draws attention to the aesthetic, practical, economic, and ideological possibilities and challenges that culture by, for, and among children and young people are facing today. The poetics is a collective term for all kinds of promises created through child and youth culture. The politics, on the other hand, refers to different forms of hindering factors for child and youth culture to reach its full potential. 

Historically, the Nordic countries are distinguished by a strong consensus regarding children’s and young people’s right to express themselves and have access to different forms of culture, media, and art. In recent times, however, the field has undergone major changes, and is today facing challenges such as considerable cutbacks, AI, unequal access, disregard of leisure cultures, moral panics and increasing adult control. At the same time the importance of child and youth culture is perhaps the greatest in times of uncertainty such as ours which are marked by the climate crisis, the threat of war and increasing lethal violence in society.
  
The bi-annual BIN-Norden conference encourages knowledge exchange and creates meetings among academics and students within the vibrant and fast-growing research field of child and youth culture.
The one-day PhD course ”Applying Playful Approaches to Your Writing Process” for doctoral students will be organized on May 7. The course will be held by professor Helle Marie Skovbjerg (Kolding School of Design, Denmark), and is included in the conference fee. More information to follow.

We welcome abstracts on child and youth culture in various contexts and exploring all aspects of the conference theme. 

 

The conference The Poetics and Politics of Child Culture(s) draws attention to the aesthetic, practical, economic, and ideological possibilities and challenges that child and youth cultures are facing today. We welcome abstracts (250 words) on child and youth culture in various contexts and exploring all aspects of the conference theme. Deadline for abstract submission is December 15, 2024. 

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Censorship and bans of culture by, for, and among children and young people
  • Child and youth culture at the intersection of age, dis/ability, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class etc
  • Children and young people’s right to culture
  • Children’s work/labour in relation to cultural and creative industries, media etc
  • Culture exploring (im)possibilities, challenging norms and transcending borders/boundaries
  • Opportunities and constraints in artistic expressions for children and youth, such as film, literature, television, games, theatre, dance, circus etc.
  • Silences and absences in child and youth culture
  • Spaces and places of child and youth culture
  • Mediated cultures, digital technologies, online cultures 
  • History of child and youth culture
  • Consumer cultures, consumption and prosumption
  • Cultural heritage
  • Indigenous cultures and heritage
  • Play cultures
  • Everyday leisure cultures
  • Material cultures
  • Food cultures
 
  1. Paper presentation: an individual paper presentation of max 15 min. The abstract should be max. 250 words and include a brief motivation about how the topic relates to the conference theme. 
  2. Self-organised symposium or panel discussion: 3-4 individual presentations on a common topic, 15 min per presentation. The abstract of max. 250 should describe the common topic and its relevance for the conference theme, and abstracts of max. 150 words should briefly present each individual paper.
  • Include a title and 4-5 keywords
  • Provide full name(s), email address(es), and affiliation(s)
  • Indicate the contact person and her/his email address
  • Deadline for abstract submission: December 15, 2024 
 

The conference registration will open in November, 2024.
More information will follow.

 
 

Doing your PhD research is often not connected with playing in any way. The PhD course “Applying playful approaches to your writing process” will introduce playful approaches to your writing, especially focusing on play practices and autoethnography. The PhD candidates will be introduced to writing exercises with inspiration from poetry and flow writing, and in the end of the PhD day the students will have a number of tools for writing combining play and autoethnography which will be highly useful in their continued work. 

Helle Marie Skovbjerg, professor at Kolding School Design (DK). Photo: Private.

The course teacher Helle Marie Skovbjerg is professor at Kolding School of Design and head of research lab Design for Play. Skovbjerg has worked with the theoretical perspective on play called the mood perspective, by some presented in the book On Play (2021). Skovbjerg is involved in several research projects about design, play and pedagogy, and is also one of the leaders of the BIN-Norden steering group.

The PhD course welcomes doctoral students from all countries and will be held Wednesday May 7 at Stockholm University. The course will be free of charge for PhD students who have paid the conference registration fee, and a joint lunch will be included. To attend the course, please tick the box “I will attend the PhD course on May 7” in the registration form. The course will be taught in English.

 

15 December 2024deadline for submission
31 January 2025 – notification of abstract acceptance 
15 March 2025 – submission of the final abstract for the abstract book 
15 March 2025 – deadline for registration 

 
  • The conference will be held at the Stockholm University campus. 
  • Lunch and coffee will be included in the conference fee. 
  • There will be a separate fee for the conference dinner at Astrid Lindgren’s Junibacken, on May 8.

More information will follow.

 

TBA

 

If you have any questions about the conference, please contact us!
E-mail: bin2025@buv.su.se 

Yelyzaveta Hrechaniuk, PhD, Linköping Univerity

Conference project coordinator:
Yelyzaveta Hrechaniuk, PhD 

 

 

 

 

Malena Janson, senior Lecturer, Stockholm University.

Conference project manager:
Malena Janson, PhD

 

BIN-Norden is a transdisciplinary Nordic research network based on humanistic, social science, cultural-historical and aesthetical studies. It is a continuation of Nordic networks and research collaboration since the 1970s, and was formally established in Aaland in 1988. Originally, focus was directed towards literature and new media for children, children’s folklore and oral expressions. Today, the approach is broader and includes research on different forms of culture by, for, and among children and young people 0-18 years old.

Fields of interest include:

  • Artistic expressions and popular culture for children
  • The cultural history of childhoods
  • Children’s production of culture, cultural expression and daily life – from children’s folklore and play culture to children as social and cultural actors and their social, physical, and institutional terms of life
  • Children’s participation in society and culture

 
BIN-Norden aims to create network relations in order to exchange experience and develop competence on the vibrant and dynamic field of research on child culture. The network is led by a steering group that arranges webbinars, reports and a bi-annual research conference. Many participants are affilated to leading research centres and institutions in the Nordic countries. We warmly welcome new members interested in child culture research – no matter if you are a student or a professor!

A new webpage is under construction, but follow us on Facebook, “BIN-Barnekultur i Norden” : https://www.facebook.com/groups/1642910812620001

And please don’t hesitate to contact us:
Helle Mari Skovbjerg, professor, Design School Kolding: hms@dsdk.dk
Niels-Peder Osmundsen Hjøllund, PhD, Københavns Professionshøjskole: nihj@kp.dk

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