Children and objects: affection and infection

This paper considers young children’s (aged 3–5 years) relations with objects, and in particular objects that are brought from home to school. We begin by considering the place of objects within early years classrooms and their relationship to children’s education before considering why some objects are often separated from their owners on entry to the classroom. We suggest that the ‘arrest’ of objects is as a consequence of them being understood as ‘infecting’ specific perceptions or constructs of young children. We further suggest that a focus on the dichotomy between affection/infection for and of certain objects may offer new possibilities for seeing and engaging with children, thus expanding the narrow imaginaries of children that are coded in developmental psychology, UK early years education policy and classroom practice

Remodelling Barbie, making justice: an autoethnography of craftivist encounters

I provide an autoethnographic account of “craft activist” workshops wherein I facilitate participants to remodel dolls to reflect their feminist or other social justice concerns, and describe one specific workshop with a powerful, personal impact in relation to childhood sexual exploitation. In drawing a connection between the vulnerabilities of one workshop participant and my own, I reflect upon our responsibilities as ethical feminist researchers. The larger function of the workshops is thereby argued as a co-created feminist space whereby we attend to the needs and desires of our intersectional feminist community. I draw upon material from diverse fields, such as art therapy, ethnography, and cultural studies to flesh out a consideration of how to transform difficult emotions and experiences into useful ‘equipment for living’, and to contribute to a scholarly conversation about the intersections of autoethnography, craftivism and feminism. The central questions answered by the work are, firstly, how representations of stigmatised identities or experiences have impacted upon me as workshop facilitator, and secondly, how we can continue to come to voice with, and support, each other in our making of a more just world. Key Words Craftivism, workshop, vulnerability, dolls, child sexual exploitation, United Kingdo

Commodity diversity:smiling faces as a strategy of containment

Arguing that commodities used in diversity management are relatively under-researched, this article examines a popular diversity image-a photograph of diversity as a mosaic-in order to explore what it can tell us about how racial difference is represented visually. In its close reading of the composition of the picture, the article argues that this diversity image acknowledges difference while at the same time it actually homogenizes it. The mosaic inscribes difference within a sameness grid and commodifies it. In so doing, it attempts to disable any political antagonism from minoritized groups, and placate the imagined white viewer, operating as a strategy of containment. The article contributes to critical diversity studies by drawing attention to visual techniques as technologies of 'race making' and visual images as important sites of power struggle. © The Author(s), 2010