Eu(rope): (re)assembling, (re)casting and (re)aligning lines of de-and re-territorialisation of early childhood

Our research strategy is an exercise of ‘mapping’ the (early childhood) assemblage which brings about the possibility – and necessity – of constant positioning and re-positioning, in relation to each other as researchers, and in relation to the ‘desiring machine’ that is early childhood education in times of neo-liberalism. In undertaking this exercise, we set out to critique the discourse as much as the practices of neo-liberalism which, while not necessarily coherent, and quite often contradictory, nevertheless work to universalise the marketisation and commodification of all aspects of life including the education and care of young children.
A pivotal aim of this assemblage is to (re)(e)value(ate) current micro- and macro-policies and –politics (Dahlberg & Moss) that shape – and are shaped by – conceptualisations of and, in consequence, practices towards young children in a range of locations, institutions and figurations (Elias, 1978; 1982). The ‘geopolitical’ location for our investigation is Europe, understood as conceptual space(s) as well as (geographical) territory. Our genealogical (re)turn within this ‘knowledge space’ or ‘knowledge assemblage’ (Turnbull) can be understood as ‘a dialectical [process] in which forms of social space are co-produced’. So, whilst we begin by focusing attention on events within an English context we nevertheless make forays beyond geographical boundaries. We argue that movements that are currently being undertaken in England are not individual, peculiar activities carried out in splendid isolation. Rather, England is infected and affected by European and global histories, practices, policies, philosophies and epistemologies. These, we argue, shoot across borders and boundaries in what could be understood as a succession or chain of rhizomatic movements. It is the oscillations between different components within a broad European assemblage (human and non-human) that makes something happen. Subsequently we detail a number of ‘happenings’ that are occurring in England. We do so with a view to asking whether these events are possible creative openings where early childhood education and care could be reassembled ‘differently’