Abstract
This article reconceptualises the postmodern Child through the lens of Havel's work on ideology, power and subject formations. Set in an any ideologically charged early childhood setting, it analyses Havel's claim that all citizens, including children, are instrumental in maintaining the ideology of the establishment, and that they are both active creators as well as suffering victims of the system. Through this theoretical lens the author argues how childhood subjectivities are produced under the ideological umbrellas of government rationalities. The article analyses this through the example of tensions between dominant and resistant discourses in early childhood settings, and the formation of childhood subjectivities of victims, supporters and rebels.
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