Politics of Childhood or Infantilization of Politics? Producing Fissures in Neoliberal, Neoconservative, and Familist Policies

Abstract

This theoretical study evaluates the rise of the neoliberal-neoconservative alliance the far-right articulated by using a familism centered on cisheteronormativity as a strategy to uphold the defense of a universalized and sacralized conception of childhood. It argues that neoliberalism and neoconservatism function as contemporary iterations of colonialism, constituting a form of neocolonialism. To support this analysis, it draws on the anthropology of childhood and a historical review of familist policies to critically examine the mobilization of childhood as a political banner of contemporary conservatism. This critique challenges the homogenization of notions of childhood and family, which disregards their sociocultural specificities and intersections. Such logic is interpreted as a process of the privatization of childhood, denying children’s political agency and naturalizing their condition as subjects to be simultaneously monitored and protected. This study proposes the creation of fissures within neoliberal, neoconservative, and familist logics, drawing on Renato Noguera’s concept of infancialização (infantilization of childhood).

Keywords:
Neoliberalism; Neoconservatism; Familism; Childhood