Paper short abstract:

Mindfulness is a malleable practice which expands into new terrains. One of those is contemporary childhood invested with a heavy load of adult anxiety. I propose ethnography of one mindfulness training for children to see how various agents navigate the novel ideas of health in Poland.

Paper long abstract:

Mindfulness is a travelling and malleable practice, constantly expanding into new areas. Contemporary childhood invested with a heavy load of adult anxiety is one of those terrains in which various regimes of wellbeing are competing for people’s attention. I propose ethnography of one mindfulness training for children to see how various agents navigate the novel ideas of health and body in contemporary Poland.

Following ethnographically one mindfulness program for children age 10-15 that was designed in Poland, I will look at the novel ways in which children’s health is being claimed outside of biomedicine, yet, remaining heavily based on scientific knowledge. Located in an ambiguous terrain – between education, pedagogy, therapeutic cultures and larger practices of wellness, mindfulness for children, when conducted in a form of a course, is being shaped by divergent discourses and power relations. The program itself is designed so as to cater for various imagined local needs defining the Polish context.

In a way, the program is an example of a “do-it-yourself” product exemplifying the notion of “McMindfulness”. Yet, on the way, it is also being hacked and reconfigured by the people involved in the process – including children. Hence, I would go beyond the neoliberal critique while interpreting the gathered research material.