Ali Khorsandnejad; Hassan Chavoshian; Arash Heydari; Hamid Abdollahi Chanzanagh
Abstract
“Childhood” is a modern phenomenon which has not been inquired historio-sociologically frequently. The prevalent prospect defines the child in a psychological system, and considers it to be an innocent, vulnerable and protection-needing being. Immanently, this form of constructing the child ...
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“Childhood” is a modern phenomenon which has not been inquired historio-sociologically frequently. The prevalent prospect defines the child in a psychological system, and considers it to be an innocent, vulnerable and protection-needing being. Immanently, this form of constructing the child creates and excludes diverse experiences of childhood. But childhood is not an integral entity and we shouldn’t attempt to give meaning to its plural range of social experiences through its constructed criteria. The present researchers tried to mark one of these “excluded” childhoods with a historical approach and explore the context of emergence of “Daar-alta’adib” as the first carceral space of children. We made use of theoretical considerations and methodological assumptions of Foucauldian genealogy and archaeology to construct an alternative narrative of experiences of childhood in Iran. Findings indicate that the perception of childhood in first Pahlavi era was based on the figure of “child in need of education” and criminal children were represented in terms of educational pathology. The subject that was disciplined in this discourse was “ill-natured child” whom turned into “delinquent child” as historical changes came in to play. Protection ideology collaborating with psychology produced child as a vulnerable being, and through this process, spatial emergence of Daar-alta’adib became possible.
