'That's enough!' (But it wasn't): the generative possibilities of attuning to what else a tantrum can do
Article
Osgood, J. and de Rijke, V. 2022. 'That's enough!' (But it wasn't): the generative possibilities of attuning to what else a tantrum can do. Global Studies of Childhood. 12 (3), pp. 235-248. https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106221117167
Type | Article |
---|---|
Title | 'That's enough!' (But it wasn't): the generative possibilities of attuning to what else a tantrum can do |
Authors | Osgood, J. and de Rijke, V. |
Abstract | Often used in the plural, tantrum denotes an uncontrolled outburst of anger and frustration, typically in a young child. In this paper we attempt to enact a feminist project of reclamation and reconfiguration of ‘the toddler tantrum’. Drawing on a range of theoretical traditions, this paper investigates the complex yet generative possibilities inherent within the tantrum to argue that it can be encountered as more-than-human, as a worldly-becoming, and as a form of resistance to Anthropocentrism and childism. We propose that the tantrum might be reappraised as a generative form of (child) activism. By mobilising the potential of arts-based approaches to the study of childhood we seek to reach other, opened out and speculative accounts of what tantrum-ing is, what it makes possible, and what it might offer to stretch ideas about, and practices with very young children. We undertake a tentacular engagement with children’s literature to arrive at possibilities to resist smoothing out, extinguishing or demonising the uncomfortable affective ecologies that are agitated by child rage. This paper brings together a concern with affect, materialities and bodies as they coalesce in more-than-human relationalities captured within ‘the tantrum’. In doing so, the unthinkable, the unbearable, the uncomfortable and the unknowable are set in motion, in the hope of arriving at a (more) critically affirmative account of childhood in all its messy complexity. |
Keywords | childism; children's picturebooks; feminist new materialism; tantrum; toddler |
Sustainable Development Goals | 4 Quality education |
Middlesex University Theme | Creativity, Culture & Enterprise |
Publisher | SAGE Publications |
Journal | Global Studies of Childhood |
ISSN | |
Electronic | 2043-6106 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 09 Aug 2022 |
01 Sep 2022 | |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 23 Aug 2022 |
Accepted | 15 Jul 2022 |
Output status | Published |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Accepted author manuscript | License File Access Level Restricted |
Copyright Statement | © The Author(s) 2022. |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106221117167 |
Web of Science identifier | WOS:000847383800004 |
Language | English |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/89y8x
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Osgood_and_de Rijke_ 2022_20436106221117167.pdf | ||
License: CC BY-NC 4.0 | ||
File access level: Open |
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