Childhood Flashcards
How do we prove that childhood is a social construct?
Differences in childhood between society
Differences in childhood within a society
Differences in childhood over time
Benedict (1934)
Found that children in non-western cultures have more responsibility at home and work
Childhood as a social construct:
The modern western notion of childhood
-Generally accepted in our society that childhood is a special time and children are fundamentally different from adults
-Regarded as physically and psychologically immature, children lack skills, knowledge and need a lengthy protection period of nurturing and socialisation
Neil Postman and the disappearance of childhood
Neil Postman argued that as children have been exposed to the adult world of television, they are more likely to mimic adult behaviour. The lines are blurred between adulthood and childhood. Postman went onto argue that the lack of adult supervision means that children are exposed to and learning about topics that may not be deemed age appropriate. New technologies provide children with an array of sources. Hence, childhood as we once knew it is disappearing.
What cultures link to Postman?
Print culture and television culture:
Print culture- children lacked literacy skills so they couldn’t explore adult matters and materials such as sex, money, violence, illness and death
Television culture- adult authority is weakened. Boundaries between adults and children are blurred. Information available to children and adults are alike.
Differences in childhood overtime
Lower infant mortality rates
Laws against child labour
Compulsory schooling and other laws
Main catalyst for this was industrialisation
Sue Palmer and toxic childhood- disappearance
Perspective that is critical of the idea that more products for children will necessarily benefit their childhood. Palmers believes that rapid technological and cultural changes have damaged childrens physical, emotional and intellectual development. This is a result of intensive marketing to children, parents working long hours and testing in education.
Sue Palmer (2006), argues children are experiencing psychological and physical damage due to modern parenting.
Parents are increasingly keeping their children quiet through use of television, junk food and gifts. More often than not, these parents are hyper-focused on consumerism themselves. Palmer particularly singled out the decline in outdoor play, exploitation by advertisers and screen saturation, which is reducing face to face time. She also called out the increased focus on testing within education, which raises anxiety in children.
The globalisation of western childhood
Some sociologists argue that western notions of childhood are being globalised. International humanitarian and welfare agencies have been exported and imposed on the rest of the world, western norms of what childhood should be- separate life stage, based on the nuclear family and school, in which children are innocent, dependant and vulnerable and have no economic rule.
Eg campaigns against child labour, or concerns about street children in developing countries, reflect western view about how childhood ought to be- whereas, in fact, such activity by children may be the norm for the culture and an important preparation for adult life.
Although, arguable such campaigns have little impact on the position of children in developing countries.
Historical differences in childhood
Many sociologists argue that childhood is a recently new invention
Ariès argued that in the Middle Ages, the idea of childhood did not exist, children and adults had the same nature.
