Intra-generationing as a practice of childhood

Though it has fallen out of the focus of theoretical discussion somewhat in recent years, the concept of ‘generation’ has been central to Childhood Studies since the field’s very beginnings (e.g. see Alanen, 2001). Concentrating on the principle of ‘intra-generationing’, we will be taking this tradition a step further by adding a further two angles and relating it to current theoretical discussions: (1) Rather than defining ‘generation’ abstractly in terms of social structure (e.g., see Qvortrup, 2009), we will be showing how generational order is created on an everyday basis in cultural practices relating to and involving children. By joining Mol (2013) in understanding generational practices as ontological politics or ‘ontopolitics’ in which children become children in the first place, we are locating the concept of generation in the context of the relational ontological turn currently being discussed in Childhood Studies (Spyrou et al., 2019). (2) At the same time, rather than seeing ‘generation’ within the binary confines of childhood and adulthood, we are conceptualising it as also including “intra-generational relations” (Punch & Vanderbeck, 2018).
We develop this theoretical perspective based on empirical reconstruction within the framework of our sub-project ‘Occupying Public Urban Space with Stunt Scooters’, carried out as part of Horizon 2020 and funded by the EU. We follow the practices adopted by children and young people who ride stunt scooters, and how they are involved in designing a new scooter park. The initial findings from the study show that an intra-generational order is established within the observed group as part of the children’s cultural practices, meaning that it can also be understood as a central aspect of establishing belonging. In the field scooter riders, this generational order not only arranges itself along the adult-child axis, but also takes on significance at an intra-generational level. Reconstructing the children’s cultural practices of stunt scootering suggests that they include not only recreational practices with the scooter itself, at certain places and under certain political conditions, but also inter- and intra-generational practices.
The creation of inter- and intra-generational order is always also linked to social inequality. Observations thus show, for example, that this sport is mainly practised by middle-class children and young people who are male or can be read as male. Considering the theoretical framework of the project, which follows the theory of the Commons (Helfrich & Bollier, 2020) and Grasso & Guigni’s conclusion (2021) that people’s class background, in particular, is ”still extremely relevant in terms of understanding intra-generational differences with respect to political engagement and the patterning and inequalities in political voice across a variety of available repertoires of action in European democracies” (ibid., p. 32), the question therefore arises of how inequalities can be reduced.
Childhood is therefore not only constituted in terms of leisure time practices or in contrast with adults, but is also the result of intra-generational ordering. This ordering follows the same path as adulting practices, which are also not exclusively limited to the category of age. In fact, the research participants are mainly divided into those who belong and those who are excluded based on the ability or specific skills they are ascribed, although that division is not absolute: they can also partially belong.
In this presentation, we posit not only that intra-generational ordering is constitutive for childhood, but also that generation can be understood as a central category of difference.

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