Posthumanism, sexualities education and the production of citizenship

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Alldred, P. ORCID: 0000-0002-5077-7286, Fox, N.J. and Hakak, Y., 2021. Posthumanism, sexualities education and the production of citizenship. In: V. Bozalek and B. Pease, eds., Post-anthropocentric social work: critical posthuman and new materialist perspectives. Routledge advances in social work . Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9780367349653

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Abstract

In this chapter we apply a new materialist ontology to issues of citizenship. We argue that instead of considering citizenship as a status to be acquired, lost or refused by an individual, it is an emergent and relational capacity. This capacity is produced and reproduced in everyday material interactions, across a spectrum of activities from work to lifestyle practices. To illustrate this shift, we examine one example of such a material interaction: the engagements that young people have with sexualities education. Using data from two studies of sexualities education, we assess how the capacities produced during sexualities education interactions – such as a capacity to express specific sexual desires or to manage fertility proactively – contribute to the ‘becoming-citizen’ of young people. We conclude by suggesting how this bottom-up, posthuman model of citizenship as becoming can assist social work theory and practice: by re-thinking agency, and acknowledging the differential access to resources and opportunities experienced by those of different genders, ethnicities, sexualities, classes and nationalities.

Item Type:

Chapter in book

Creators:

Alldred, P., Fox, N.J. and Hakak, Y.

Publisher:

Routledge

Place of Publication:

Abingdon

Date:

2021

ISBN:

9780367349653