The Library

Awake, asleep, adult, child : an a-humanist account of persons

Tools

Lee, Nick. (2008) Awake, asleep, adult, child : an a-humanist account of persons. Body & Society, Volume 14 (Number 4). pp. 57-74. ISSN 1357-034X

Preview

PDF
WRAP_Lee_Awake asleep adult child Lee submitted draft.pdf - Submitted Version - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Download (397Kb) | Preview

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1357034X08096895

Abstract

Sleeping persons do not seem to be agents, to express identity or to give voice. On one view this means that social research on sleep would do best to focus on the social context of sleep rather than sleep `itself'. If the only analytic vocabulary at our disposal consists of abstractions that assume the existence of self-conscious, self-present individuals, this conclusion is probably correct. This article, however, builds on the work of some contemporary childhood researchers to offer an account of the `person' as an emergent property of distributed interactions between heterogeneous elements. The account is built through a discussion of `transitional objects' and `affects'. It is argued that this version of the 'person' could help social research to make sense of both sides of the awake/asleep threshold. The potential contribution of this approach to the emerging bio-politics of childhood and states of un/consciousness is discussed.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Subjects:

B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology

Divisions:

Faculty of Social Sciences > Institute of Education ( -2013)

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):

Actor-network theory, Affect (Psychology), Biopolitics, Children -- Sleep -- Social aspects, Infants -- Sleep -- Social aspects, Agent (Philosophy), Deleuze, Gilles, 1925-1995

Journal or Publication Title:

Body & Society

Publisher:

Sage Publications Ltd.

ISSN:

1357-034X

Official Date:

December 2008

Dates:

Date	Event
December 2008	Published

Volume:

Volume 14

Number:

Number 4

Page Range:

pp. 57-74

Identification Number:

10.1177/1357034X08096895

Status:

Peer Reviewed

Publication Status:

Published

Access rights to Published version:

Restricted or Subscription Access

References:

Alderson, P. (2000) Young Children’s Rights: Exploring Beliefs, Principles and Practice. London: Jessica
Kingsley.
Austin, H., B. Dwyer and P. Freebody (2003) Schooling the Child: The Making of Students in Classrooms.
London: Routledge Falmer.
Cameron, D. (2000) Good to Talk? Living and Working in a Communication Culture. London: Sage.
Curt, B. (1994) Textuality and Tectonics: Troubling the Social and Psychological Sciences. Milton
Keynes: Open University Press.
Deleuze, G. (1988) Spinoza: Practical Philosophy. San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books.
Deleuze, G. and F. Guattari (1988) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans.
B. Massumi. London: Athlone.
Department of Trade and Industry (2005) Drugs Futures 2025? Executive Summary and Overview.
London: HMSO.
Derrida, J. (1976) Of Grammatology. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Fuss, D. (1990) Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and Difference. London: Routledge.
Geertz, C. (2001) Available Light: Anthropological Reflections on Philosophical Topics. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Gergen, K.J. (2000) An Invitation to Social Construction. London: Sage.
Gomez, L. (1997) An Introduction to Object Relations. London: Free Association Books.
Heidegger, M. (1996) Being and Time, trans. J. Stambaugh. New York: State University of New York
Press.
Horne, J. (2006) Sleepfaring: A Journey Through the Science of Sleep. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
James, A. and A. Prout (eds) (1997) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues
in the Sociological Study of Childhood, 2nd edn. London: Falmer.
James, A., C. Jenks and A. Prout (1998) Theorizing Childhood. Cambridge: Polity.
Komulainen, S. (2005) ‘The Contextuality of Children’s Communication Difficulties in Specialist
Practice: A Sociological Account’, Child Care in Practice 11(3): 357–74.
Komulainen, S. (2007) ‘The Ambiguity of the Child’s “Voice” in Social Research’, Childhood 14(1):
11–28.
Latour, B. (1992) ‘Where Are the Missing Masses? A Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts’,
pp. 225–58 in W.E. Bijker and J. Law (eds) Shaping Technology/Building Society. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
Lee, N.M. (2001) Childhood and Society: Growing Up in an Age of Uncertainty. Maidenhead: Open
University Press.
Lee, N.M. (2005) Childhood and Human Value: Development, Separation and Separability. Maidenhead:
Open University Press.
Lee, N.M. and J. Hassard (1999) ‘Organization Unbound: Actor Network Theory, Research Strategy
and Institutional Flexibility’, Organization 6(3): 391–404.
Motzkau, J.F. (2005) ‘Cross-examining Suggestibility: Memory, Childhood, Expertise, Children’s Testimony
Between Psychological Research and Juridical Practice’, in A. Czerederecka, T. Jaskiewicz-
Obydzinska, R. Roesch and J. Wojcikiewicz (eds) Forensic Psychology and Law: Facing the
Challenges of a Changing World. Krakow: Institute of Forensic Research Publishers.
Motzkau, J.F. (2006) ‘Cross-examining Suggestibility: Memory, Childhood, Expertise’, PhD thesis,
Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK.
Piaget, J. (1927) The Child’s Conception of the World. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Prout, A. (2004) The Future of Childhood. London: Routledge Falmer.
Qvortrup, J. (1994) ‘Childhood Matters: An Introduction’, in J. Qvortrup, M. Bardy, G. Sgritta and
H. Wintersberger (eds) Childhood Matters: Social Theory, Practice and Politics. Aldershot: Avebury.
Rose, N. (2007) The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power and Subjectivity in the Twenty-first
Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Schutz, A. and T. Luckmann (1974) Structures of the Life-world. London: Heinemann.
Taylor, C. (1992) Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Williams, S.J. (2005) Sleep and Society: Sociological Ventures into the (Un)Known. London: Routledge.
Williams, S.J. (2007) ‘The Social Etiquette of Sleep: Some Sociological Reflections and Observations’,
Sociology 41(2): 313–28.
Winnicott, D.W. (1971) Playing and Reality. London: Tavistock.
Winnicott, D.W. (1986) Home is Where we Start From: Essays by a Psychoanalyst. London: Penguin.