Childhood as a social construct

Question 1

How do sociologists view childhood?

Answer 1

As a social construction-it is created and defined by society, so it isn’t fixed, but instead differs between time, places and cultures

Question 2

What is the basic idea of childhood in western society?

Answer 2

It’s a special time of life and children are fundamentally different from adults. They are physically and psychologically immature, and not yet competent to run their own lives. The belief is that they lack skills, knowledge and experience so they need a length, protected period of nurturing and socialisation before they are ready for adult society and its responsibilities

Question 3

What does Pilcher note about the modern idea of childhood is?

Answer 3

most important feature of the modern idea of childhood is separateness. Childhood is seen as a clear and distinct life stage where children occupy a separate status from adults

Question 4

How is the idea of separateness emphasised?

Answer 4

Through laws regulating what children are allowed, required, or forbidden to do. Also in differences in dress, products and services

Question 5

What idea is related to the separateness of children’s status?

Answer 5

The idea of childhood as a ‘golden age’ of happiness and innocence

Question 6

What does innocence of children mean?

Answer 6

Children are seen as vulnerable and in need of protection from the dangers of the adult world and so must be ‘quarantined’ and separated from it, resulting in children living largely in the sphere of family and education, where adults provide for and protect them

Question 7

The view of childhood as a separate age status, is not found in all…

Answer 7

societies, it isn’t universal, so while humans all go through same stages of physical development, the process is defined differently within different cultures

Question 8

How are children defined in western cultures today?

Answer 8

As vulnerable and unable to fend for themselves, whereas other cultures don’t necessarily see such a great difference between children and adults

Question 9

What is a good way to illustrate the social construction of childhood?

Answer 9

By taking a comparative approach, and look at how children are seen/treated in other times/places

Question 10

What does Benedict argue about children in non-industrial societies

Answer 10

Children in simpler, non-industrial societies are generally treated differently from their modern western counterparts in three ways

Question 11

What are the three different ways that childhood is different in non-industrial societies?

Answer 11

hey take responsibility at an early age (Punch and Holmes), less value is placed on children showing obedience to adult authority (Firth) and Children’s sexual behaviour is often viewed differently (Malinowski)

Question 12

How are the western notions of childhood being globalised?

Answer 12

International humanitarian and welfare agencies have exported and imposed on the rest of the world, western norms of what childhood should be

Question 13

What is an example of childhood becoming globalised?

Answer 13

Eg campaigns against child labour, or concerns about ‘street children’ in developing countries, reflect western views about how childhood ‘ought’ to be, when it may be the norm in their life and preparation for adult life

Question 14

Who talks about childhood in the past?

Answer 14

Ariès

Question 15

What does Ariès argue about the middle ages?

What does Ariès use as evidence?

Answer 15

The idea of childhood did not exist. Children were not seen as having a different nature or needs from adults once they had passed the stage of physical dependency during infancy

Works of art from the Middle Ages, where children appear ‘without any of the characteristics of childhood: they are simply depicted on a smaller scale’-same clothes, jobs and leisure

Question 16

What does Ariès say that these developments highlight?

Answer 16

The modern ‘cult of childhood’, arguing we moved from a world that saw children as mini adults, to a society obsessed with children. 20th century= the century of the child

Question 17

What does Pollock argue?

Criticises Ariès

Answer 17

Criticises Ariès for arguing that childhood didn’t exist in the past, instead it is more correct to say that in the Middle Ages, society had a different notion of childhood from today’s

Question 18

Why is Ariès’ work valuable?

Answer 18

It shows that childhood is socially constructed as he demonstrates how ideas about children and their social status have varied over time

Question 19

What are the changes during the 19th and 20th century that have led to changes in the position of children?

Answer 19

Laws on labour/work,

compulsory schooling,

child protection and welfare legislation,

growth of idea of children’s rights,

declining family size/lower infant mortality rates,

medical knowledge and laws/policies that only apply to children

Question 20

How have laws on labour/work changed the position of children?

Answer 20

There are laws restricting child labour and excluding children from paid work. From becoming economic assets who could earn a wage, children became an economic liability, financially dependant on their parents

Question 21

How did the introduction of compulsory schooling change the position of children?

Answer 21

Happened in 1880, and mainly effected poor children as middle-upper class children were already in education. It increases dependancy on parents, especially by raising school leaving age

Question 22

How has child protection and welfare legislation led to the change in position of children?

Answer 22

1889 prevention of cruelty to children act and the 1989 children act, made welfare of children the fundamental principle underpinning the work of agencies such as social services

Question 23

How has the growth of children’s rights changed the position of children?

Answer 23

Children act defines parents as having responsibilities rather than rights in regards to children, while the United nations convention on the rights of the child 1989 lays down basic rights such as entitlement to healthcare ad education, protection from abused and the right to participate in decisions that affect them, such as custody cases

Question 24

How does declining family size and lower infant mortality rate change the position of children?

Answer 24

It encourages parents to make a greater financial and emotional investment in the fewer children that they have

Question 25

How has medical knowledge changed the position of children?

Answer 25

Children’s development became the subject of medical knowledge, and Donzelot observed how theories of child development that began to appear from 19th century, stressed that children need supervision and protection

Question 26

How do laws and policies that only apply to children change the position of children?

Answer 26

Eg minimum ages for certain activities such as smoking, have reinforced the idea that children are different from adults and so different rules must be applied to their behaviour

Question 27

What do many sociologists argue about childhood and industrialisation?

Answer 27

Underlies many of the changes in position of children eg modern industry needs an educated workforce and so requires compulsory schooling of the young. Also higher standards of living and better welfare provision provided by industrialisation leads to lower infant mortality rates