The ABCs of ‘Ghost Children’: Austerity, Brexit, Covid or Anthropology By Children?

In this paper, Robinson addresses the issue of 300,000+ children and young people missing from UK school registers. 

These so-called ‘ghost children’ have been either administratively or actually lost within the melee caused by impacts of austerity, shifting sands in the wake of Brexit and Covid lockdowns.

Robinson charts the ways that invisible mandates of self-disclosure are increasingly required in order to be seen by British institutions, particularly at the frontlines of public support, and the ways that vulnerable people including children and young people are erased as a result. In this frame, disclosure may serve as both problem and solution.

By upskilling young people in self-advocacy, which mobilises cultivation of youth-led citizen social science, Robinson proposes the disruptive potential of ethnographic research to support resilience, youth civic engagement, and dimensionalise young people beyond statistics, while also democratising anthropological knowledge-making.

Registration

The event is free to attend, but external/non-SOAS visitors must register via the link at the top of the page.

Organiser and sponsor

The seminar series is funded by a grant from UKRI. SOAS launched its Centre for Anthropology and Mental Health Research in Action (CAMHRA) this year, as a centre that aims to foster collaborations between anthropology and mental health research and practice.