Framing Children in the Newfoundland Confederation Debate, 1948.

The paper explores the interaction of culture and political structures on social movement activities by examining the "use" of children - their images, appeals to their corporeal, spiritual and civic health, etc. - in the collective action frames devised by opposing sides of the Newfoundland "Confederation debate" of 1948. The messages concerning children appearing in the most partisan rhetoric produced by supporters and opponents of union with Canada were shaped by the cultural specificity of the political structures surrounding children in Newfoundland. In particular, the cultural link between children and the state that prevailed in Britain and Canada at the time, that which presented children as "future citizens" best nurtured by the state, was undeveloped in 1948 Newfoundland, owing in part to political structures that supported denominational schooling in the country. As a result, pro- and anti-Confederate interests were compelled to frame the Newfoundland "nation" in ways that diverged from more familiar discourses on children and nation. The paper shows how the political structures surrounding children and the corresponding cultural construction of children can shape nationalist debates, and highlights the restrictive as well as enabling aspects of culture on social movement activities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]