F+H - Childhood Flashcards
What does it mean when we say childhood is a social construct?
Defined and created by society
What is seen as childhood varies:
- between societies
- within societies
- historically
How is childhood seen in the west?
- seen as a special innocent time of life
- children are seen as fundamentally different from adults, as physically immature and not yet competent to run their own lives.
- as a result, they need a lengthy, protected period of nurturing and socialisation
- childhood is seen as a distinct life stage
- status of the ‘child’ is separate from the ‘adult’.
- Pilcher (1991) - key feature of the modern idea of childhood is separateness.
- Cunningham (2007) - children are seen as the opposite of adults. they have the right to happiness.
How is childhood seen in different cultures?
Benedict (1934) : children in simpler, non-industrial societies are treated differently from their modern, western counterparts.
1) more responsibility at work and home
- Holmes : study of a Samoan village found that “too young” was never given as a reason for not permitting a child to undertake a particular task
2) less value placed on obedience to adult authority
- Firth : study of the Tikopia of W. Pacific found that doing as you’re told by an adult is regarded as a concession to be granted as a child, not a right to be expected by the adult.
3) children’s sexual behaviour is often viewed differently
- Malinowski : among Trobriand Islanders of the S. Pacific, adults took an attitude of ‘tolerance and amused interest’ towards children’s sexual explorations and activities.
Why has the position of children changed?
1) Lower infant mortality rate + smaller families (parents make a greater emotional and financial investment)
2) specialist knowledge about children’s health (e.g. theories about child development stressed that they needed protection and supervision)
3) laws banning child labour (1840s onwards, made them economic liabilities and economically dependent on their parents)
4) compulsory schooling (since 1880, created a period of dependency on the family and separated children from the adult work of work)
5) child protection and welfare laws ( emphasised children’s vulnerability and made their welfare a central concern)
6) idea of children’s rights (Children Act (1989) saw parents as having ‘responsibilities’ towards their children rather than ‘rights’)
What is the modern notion of childhood?
- it emerged in the 13th Century
- Church saw children as fragile “creatures of God” needing disciplining and protection from worldly evils.
- there was a growing distinction between adults’ and children’s clothing that set them apart
- schools began to specialise purely in the education of the young
- Aries: all of these resulted in the modern ‘cult of childhood’ and he described the 20th Century as the “century of the child”
What is the child-centred family?
The child centred family is where children are the focal point and their physical and psychological needs are met in society.
What was childhood like in medieval Europe?
- Aries (1960): childhood didn’t exist
- work began from an early age and children weren’t seen as having a different nature to adults
- in effect, they were ‘mini-adults’ bc they had the same rights, duties and skills as adults
- Shorter: parental attitudes were very different. high death rates encouraged indifference and neglect, especially towards infants.
BUT: Pollock (1983) argues that it’s more correct to say that in the MA, society simply had a different notion of childhood from today’s.
What is age patriarchy?
- Gittins: there’s an age patriarchy of adult domination that keeps children subordinate.
- adults make children economically dependent by preventing them from working.
- this can lead to sexual, emotional and physical abuse.
Resistance: - children may resist the restricted status of the ‘child’ by acting older (e.g. smoking and drinking) or acting younger (e.g. wanting to be picked up)
- For Hockney and James, this shows that modern childhood is a status most children want to escape.
What is the conflict view towards the claim that the position of children has improved?
- conflict theories argue that the MOP view is over-generalised and idealised.
- “child-liberationists” like Firestone say that it ignores the inequalities between children and among children and adults.
- Firestone (1979): extensive care and protection are just new forms of oppression.
What are the inequalities between children?
1) Gender
- Hillman (1993): boys are more likely to be allowed to cross/cycle on roads, use buses and go out after dark unaccompanied.
2) Ethnic
- Bhatti (1999): ideas of izzat (family honour) could be a restriction, particularly on the behaviour of girls.
3) Class
- poor mothers are more likely to have low birth-weight babies, which in turn is linked to delayed physical and intellectual development.
- children born into poor families are more likely to die in infancy or childhood, to suffer longstanding illness, to be shorter in height, to fall behind school and to be placed on the child protection register.
What are the inequalities between adults and children?
- neglect and abuse
- controls over children’s space
- controls over children’s time
- controls over children’s bodies
- controls over children’s access to resources
What is the inequality of neglect and abuse?
- adult control can take the extreme form of physical neglect or physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
- in 2003, 43000 children were subject to child protection plans because they were deemed to be at risk of significant harm - most often from their parents
What is the inequality of control over children’s space?
- their movements are highly regulated.
- Cunningham (2007) - the ‘home habitat’ of 8 year olds (the area which they’re allowed to travel alone) has shrunk one-ninth of the size it was 25 years earlier
- control and surveillance contrasts with the independence of many children in developing countries. E.G. Katz (2004) describes how rural Sudanese children roam freely both within the village and for several km outside it.
What is the inequality of control over children’s time and bodies?
- exercise enormous control over children’s bodies (e.g. how they sit, walk, run, what they wear, their hairstyles, etc.)
- taken for granted that children’s bodies may be touched in certain ways by certain adults, e.g. washed, kissed, and may be disciplined by slapping
- also restrict the ways in which children may touch their own bodies. e.g. not suck their thumb or pick their nose.
- contrasts with the sexual freedoms enjoyed by children in some non-industrial cultures such as the Trobriand Islands - Malinowski
What is the inequality of children’s access to resources?
- in industrial societies, children have only limited opportunities to earn money, so they remain dependent economically on adults
- labour laws and compulsory schooling exclude them from all but the most marginal, low-paid, part-time employment
- state pays child-benefit but this goes to adult, not child
- pocket money given by parents may depend on ‘good behaviour’ and there may be restrictions on what it can be spent on
All this contrasts with the economic role of children in developing societies today and in European societies of the past. E.G. Katz found that Sudanese children were already engaged in productive work from the age of 3 or 4
What is the march of progress view on the position of children?
- children’s position has been steadily improving and today is better than it has ever been. The family is child-centred.
- children are better cared for in terms of psychological, educational and medical needs.
- higher living standards and smaller family sizes means parents can provide more to their children.
- children are protected from harm and exploitation by laws against abuse and labour.
- most babes now survive (lower IMR).
What is toxic childhood?
- Palmer (2006) argues that rapid technological and cultural changes are damaging children’s development (e.g. computer games, junk food, intensive marketing to children, long hours worked by adult and testing in education).
- Children are deprived of a genuine childhood.
- UK youth are near the top of international league tables for obesity, self-harm, drug and alcohol abuse, and violence.
What is the ‘new sociology of childhood’?
Active agents:
- this sees children as playing an important part in creating their own childhoods.
Multiple childhoods:
- seeks to explore the many diverse childhoods that exist in society by taking the child’s viewpoint.
- this approach is favoured by child liberationists bc it draws attention to the fact that they often lack power in relation to adults.
What is disappearing childhood?
- Postman (1994) : children are becoming more like adults, gaining similar rights and acting in similar ways
- Result of TV culture replacing print culture. TV culture makes info available to adults and children
-Tthe boundary between adulthood and childhood is broken down and adult authority weakened. - Print culture: children lacked the literacy skills needed to access info, so adults could keep knowledge about money, sex, violence, illness, death and other ‘adult’ matters secret from them.
How can we evaluate disappearing childhood?
It over-emphasises a single factor, ignoring others
Opie (1993):
- believes CH isn’t disappearing
- a separate children’s culture continues to exist in the form of games, songs and jokes.
Others argue that western norms of what childhood should be are being exported globally, bc its spreading.
How is childhood viewed in post-modernity?
Jenk (2005)
- argues that modern society created childhood to prepare the individual.
- to achieve this, the vulnerable child needed to be nurtured and protected.
- in post-modernism, adults’ relationships became more unstable. relationships with their children become adults’ last refuge from insecurity.
- they become even more fearful for their children’s safety, leading to greater regulation of children’s lives.
