In many circumstances, actual children going about their lives are shadowed by a figure of ‘the child’. This figure has deep historical, cultural, and political roots. It is available for use wherever there is a need to come to an understanding of actual children. It is held by many adults, and its deployment is often a token of their caring for and their responsibility towards children. The figure of the child is a character who has many deficits of cognition and of wisdom when compared to adults, who is on a path towards repair of these deficits, but who, in light of these deficits, requires the protection of, intercession by, and a degree of control by adults. One major finding of social and cultural research ...