Biopower and the “civilisation” of children's bodies in a preschool bathroom: An Australian case study
International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)
No.3, 2013
Biopower and the “civilisation” of children's bodies in a preschool bathroom: An Australian case study
(Abstract)
Ken Cliff and Zsuzsa Millei
Within the bathrooms of early childhood education settings, children perform more or less fundamental biological processes while concurrently learning about how to conduct themselves socially in relation to these. While the governance of children's bodies falls very much within the scope of “biopower” as proposed by Foucault, we suggest that within the bathroom children's bodies are only partly regulated by “biopolitical” strategies. Rather, this setting provides us with illustrative examples of disciplinary, sovereign, and biopower working together through processes of governmentality. Foucault argues that alternative mechanisms overtaking biopolitics emerged from the critiques posed by the democratisation of the subject of rights, and critiques of sovereignty. In the bathroom, answers to these critiques are exemplified by the panoptic nature of the bathroom, child-centred practices, and the appearance of the burgeoning discourses around child protection and children's rights to privacy. The empirical examples in this Australian case study present a complex picture of the workings of power within the bathroom.