A Genealogy of Family Life and Childhood Governance

Abstract

The contemporary child is at risk from countless unseen dangers, while burdened with the responsibility for assuming the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve economic and social success. It is no wonder that childhood is today fraught with perils and risks, requiring expert guidance. Have children always borne so much risk and responsibility? In the naturalized context of contemporary life, it is difficult to appreciate the profound transformations in cultural practices and understandings that have produced Western childhood as a problem space requiring careful surveillance, deliberate cultivation, and expert guidance.