'Being and Becomings'

This is a great article by Emma Uprichard's article well worth reading about the tension between the two concepts of 'being' and'becoming' and how they don't necessarily need to be seen as conflicting discourses but complementary as children, and I would also say adults, are always both 'being and becomings'.

Introduction

Over the past three decades, there has been much discussion about the different constructions of children and childhood (James and others, 1998; Jenks, 1996; Mayall, 2002; Qvortrup, 1994). This article taps into those debates by focusing on notions of children and childhood ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ (e.g. James and others, 1998; Qvortrup, 1991). By addressing the temporality intrinsic to these notions, I suggest it is appropriate to consider these discourses together, and not necessarily as conflicting discourses, but as ones that complement one another. Moreover, I argue that understanding the ‘child’ as both ‘being and becoming’ increases the agency that child has in the world.