This editorial provides a brief analysis of the emergence of modern concept of the child, originating with Rousseau and Kant. It is a notion that is predicated on the concept of freedom to which ‘play’ is a natural cognate, and it is associated with the ideology of universal rights. This view is contrasted with Jacques Donzelot's ‘The Policing of the Family’ that describes the governmentality of children through the language of the welfare state; and the current era of governmentality through the market where neoliberal notions of ‘choice’ and ‘quality’ dominate.
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