Childhood

Postmodernism and childhood

Cultural differences

Pilcher - seperateness

Childhood is a social construct

Conflict sociologists

Toxic childhood - Sue Palmer

We see children as biologically immature to adults, meaning they need specialised care & are vunerable

Sociologists argue they are socially constructed

Created by those in power according to norms & values in society

It is accepted in society that children & adults are different & should be treated so

Childhood is 'golden age' of happiness

Different characteristics, children lack knowledge, nurtured & socialised

Laws, treat children different, forbids them from things

Dress, different

Products, different

Children mainly confined to home, family or school

supports Pilcher

Punch
Study found responsibility at young age. Rural Bolivia, once 5 years old expected to take work in community, tasks without question or hesitation

Holmes
Samoan village found 'too young' not valid reason, even if task dangerous or heavy, if parent thinks can do then they do

Firth
Less value placed on children showing obedience to authority. Tikopia of Western Pacific, doing what is told by adult is not a right expected but a concession to be granted by child

Malinoswi
Sexual behaviour viewed differently. Trobriad Islanders of South-West Pacific, adults 'tolerance and amused interest' to sexual exploration & activities of children

Action theories/Personal Life Perspective

Historical differences

The future of childhood - Neil Postman

16th-17th Century
Philippe Aries (1973), in Medieval times childhood didn't exist, children encouraged to work when out of infancy, miniature adults that take on adult roles & responsibility as soon as physically able

15th-16th Century
portraits in these years show mini-adults wearing adult clothes

19th Century
children commonly completing labour in factories & over areas, work as long and hard as adults, pushed into apprenticeships earning money as servant, punished to same level as adults for criminal activity

Edward Shorter
blames high infant mortality rates for parents indifference and neglect towards their children

The industrial revolution

Aries - "the beginning of the modern cult of childhood
mainly rich families began dressing children differently, having different attitudes and 18thC we see first handbooks on childrearing

Reasons why?

  • child labour banned
  • introduction of compulsory schooling
  • child protection laws
  • welfare legislation
  • nuclear family
  • declining birth rate
  • new medical knowledge
  • age limites applied to certain things

led to child-centeredness

Legislations

  • social security and child poverty, 1911 National Insurance Act
  • early years and education, 1876 Royal Commission on the Factory Acts
  • rights, 1923 Declarations of the Rights of the Child
  • culture, media & tech, 2002 CBeebies launched
  • youth justice, 1908 Children & Young Persons Act
  • health, 1946 School Milk Act
  • care and protection, 1908 Children Act

Childhood disappearing
'disappearing at a dazzling speed' due to trend towards children same rights as adults e.g. clothing, games, children committing 'adult' crimes

  • Lies in the fall of print culture and its replacement with TV

Information hierarchy
From 19thC onwards, childhood seperate status. Improved education meant more adults literature, separate to children that couldn't. Adults control knowledge over 'adult matters', not shared with children, separate in information they can access.

  • Created idea of innocent, ignorant child
  • Now, seperation of info not the case due to TV, no need for specialised skills unlike printed world, not info hierarchy

Evaluation - Iona Opie
childhood not disappearing, strong evidence of childhood culture continuing e.g. child games, Postman exaggerating extent 1 cause has on development of childhood

Childhood is getting worse

Problems:

  • children's attention poorer
  • poorer listening skills & language declining
  • increase in developmental needs, not just due to increase in diagnosis

10 main causes of problems

  • diet
  • lack of play
  • lack of sleep
  • changes in education
  • technology, "electronic village"
  • parenting changes
  • difficulties with communication
  • family changes
  • childcare changes

Movement of TVs into children's bedrooms a huge impact, news impacts children negatively

Solutions:

  • need more first hand play in real world
  • less TVs in bedrooms
  • less passive sedentary play e.g. computers
  • more real food

Children are most vulnerable in society

Modern childhood is based on false idealised ideas of children, characterised by inequality

We can not say 'children' as if all are equal

There are differences between adults and children, and children and children

Gender
Gender differences between children

  • Mayer Hillman - boys more likely be allowed to cross or cycle or roads, use buses and go out after dark unaccompanied
  • Jen Bonke - girls do more domestic labour, lone parent families they do 5x more than boys

Age

  • Shulamith Firestone and John Holt - many things progress writers see as a care & protection are actually forms of oppression & control, Firestone argue protection from paid work stops children having independence, dependent on adults
  • neglect & abuse, 2013 43,000 children subject to child protection plans
  • controls over children's spaces, bodies, access to resources, and time
  • Diata Gittins - age patriarchy, adult domination, child dependency

Ethnicity

  • 90% of worlds low birth weight babies are born in developing countries
  • Julia Brannen - study of 15-16yos found asian parents more likely to be strict towards daughters
  • Ghazala Bhati - ideas of izzat family donor could be restriction, particular for girls

Class

  • poor mothers more likely low-weight babies
  • children of unskilled manual workers over 3x more likely to suffer from hyper-activity and 4x more likely to experience conduct disorders than those of professionals
  • children into poor families more likely to die in finance or childhood, longstanding illness, fall behind in school, shorter in height, placed on child protection roster

Children create their own childhoods

Carol Smart
new approach aims to include views & experiences of children themselves while they are living through childhood

Jennifer Mason and Becky Tipper
show how children actively create their own definitions of who is family, may not include people that are not 'proper' aunts etc, but who they see as close

Christopher Jenks

Modern society concerned with development and nurturing of children as it wanted productive, hardworking adults. A child centred family and education system developed with child discipline and conformity at centre, to learn to be good workers

Less stable relationships
Relationships are now less stable (e.g. rise in divorce, more diverse, Giddens)
This means adults cling onto their children as their only 'stable and secure' relationship in ever changing world, so more protective over children, more surveillance and control

Children lives more controlled = Life360, helicopter parents, parental consent etc

Parents feel more protective due to rise in media, spreads horror stories about crimes against children

Childhood is still a seperate phase of life, more legal restrictions and even more parental control

Donzelot - we live in an age of surveillance

Mause
The further back in history you go, the lower the level in childcare

Aries & Shorter
children more valued & better cared fro than in the past

'new sociology of childhood
Came into force in early 1990s, seen from point of view of children than adults, evident in UN 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child