This course is about empirical and theoretical perspectives on the current sociological research on childhood. Building on a poststructurally informed reading of power and government a framework for analysis is built that is rooted in Governmentality Studies. This course conveys  an understanding of both a systemic and historic perspective on the relations of education and difference. The analytical framework will be applied on actual cases in a critical and reflexive manner.

Power and rule work along several differentiations in society, like generational order, race, class, and gender. Educational work cannot take place outside of these power relations. On the contrary, education itself is linked closely with the production of such differences, as it necessarily creates specific subjects along these differentiations in society and its ideas of norms, difference, and deviance. Especially the difference of generation is constitutive for education.

This relationship of education, difference, and deviance is the overall theme of this course. It will first address basic questions of the current research on childhood based on perspectives of power. These will then be applied to several fields of education such as diversity, ‘Inklusion’, and ‘Interkulturelle Pädagogik’.

reading, group work

presentation

The bibliography will be available soon.

mailto:  oktay.bilgi@uni-koeln.de