At the threshold of the 'social' era (1880s-1920s) in Canada, the idea of 'child saving' emerged within the framework of building national citizenship, aimed at ensuring that children - the 'future citizens' - would grow up to be useful, self-controlled, Christian adults. Child saving work connected the conduct of individuals with issues of societal importance and attempted to install a desirable mode of power in child rearing and child saving that can best be described as 'the gardening governmentality.'

Tending the Gardens of Citizenship takes a Foucauldian approach to...