Children as Human Futures: Children as Life-forms

Abstract

At least two relationships are regularly formed between children and the ‘future’. From the perspective of parents and other family members, children often represent, among other things, the survival of highly valued characteristics, attributes and traditions beyond individuals’ death. From the perspective of the political and geographical entities know as ‘states’, children represent an opportunity to shape and to secure a future for the populations they govern. By intervening in the health or education of a child, they can hope, for example, to increase the likelihood that, as an adult, she will be a net contributor to state finances.