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Power Relations and Childhood - Coggle Diagram
Power Relations and Childhood
Neglect and abuse
Adult control over children can take an extreme form of physical neglect, sexual or emotional abuse
In 2013, 43,000 children were subject to child protection plans because they were deemed at risk of significant harm, most often from their own parents
Control over children's space
Reducing areas of play
'No ball games' signs
Limited access in shops
Road safety measures / stranger danger meaning children see their friends less and play outside less
Katz
Compares this to childhood in Sudan
They have freedom to play and travel several kilometres away fro home, so they are less controlled
Control over children's time
Limited / designated time to play
TV time
Bedtime / time to wake up
Too old / young for an activity
Control over children's bodies
Parents choose what their children wear
Piercings / tattoos
Sucking thumb
Haircuts
Control over access to resources
Cannot earn money for themselves
Economically dependent on parents
Evaluation (AO3)
Pester power
Children have some control
Able to access resources they want
Do not want to or need to work
Gittins - age patriarchy
Today, the power of the male head over all other members includes children as well as women
Humphreys and Thiara found that a quarter of 200 women in their study left their abusive partner as they feared for their children
Social Action Theories and Childhood
Giddens
Childhood is becoming more individualised
Decline in obedience as parents' relationships with their children have changed
Families may experience difficulty in fitting children into society in the future
Children have the power to dictate consumption patterns in the family
Chambers
Rise of gadgets
Loss of innocence
Spend less time with parents, less reliant on them, thus breaking bonds
Compensatory consumption (Pugh)
Ruining / changing relationship between children and parents
Van Rompaey and Roe
New media created a fragmentation in life where children diengage and spend time of media
'Living together but separately'
Play with gadgets rather than being with family
Livingstone
In society today, we have a screen rich bedroom culture
Parents control children through bedroom culture, but children still have a culture in their bedrooms through social media / technology, giving them freedom
Interactions between parents and children have changed due to the increase in technology
Have full access / connection to the outside world
Because of this new use of media, there is tension between parents and children
Children want privacy, but parents want to ensure their child's safety
Postmodernism and Childhood
Sees children from an adult point of view and are biased in favour of adults at the expense of children
Mayall - this ignores the rights of children and underestimates their ability to think and act for themselves
Children are the final group who are denied the rights to make their own decisions, after women have achieved greater rights
Children have no rights to shape their own schooling, and have little influence on policies which affect them
This exposes children to danger, for example making it easier for adults to abuse them
By giving children a voice in policies which affect them, they will be better served by social policies and less vulnerable to abuse
Mason and Tipper
Children take an active role in who they consider their family
Blood relationships vs fictive kin
No longer restricted to who counts as family
Smart (PLP)
Childhood has different meanings and experiences for each child
Children could dictate and have freedoms within the family
Children's testimony in custody cases means that their view is taken into account
Evaluation (AO3)
Coercive parents can easily manipulate children and train them to say certain things in custody cases
Children have a lack of understanding of danger
Laws have not changed as fast as these new changes in childhood (children's new power), so childhood is still restricted
Childhood in postmodernity
Giddens
Transformation of intimacy
Structure of the family is still important but we have more freedom
Democratic relationship between children and parents, making them more equal
Children can negotiate decision making
Chapman
Not all families experience childhood the same
Children in gay / lone parent / reconstituted families may experience childhood differently to those in a traditional nuclear family
Even if they had the same type of family, it would still be affected by CAGE factors
Chambers
Parents are answerable to children
Parents need to show respect to their children to be respected
Postmodernists argue that the status of childhood may be improving because of the emergence of new kinds of intimate relationships
Postmodernists note that the Western approach of childhood is spreading around the world (eg. through media, laws, and other countries mimic this)
Evaluation (AO3)
Not applicable to all social groups (South Asian, African, Afro-Caribbean)
However, later generation migrants may not have as much of a different experience