topic 2 childhood Flashcards
How is childhood socially constructed?
Childhood is defined and created by society
What is seen as childhood varies:
* Between societies – cross cultural differences
* Within societies
* Over time
Modern Western notion of childhood
How does pilcher define childhood?
In what ways do kids have a different status from adults?
Childhood is a distinct, separate life stage. Children have a different status to adults
- Children are fundamentally different from adults
- They are physically and psychologically immature
- They need a lengthy period of socialisation and nurturing before they take on adult responsibilities
- Associated with happiness and innocence
4 Examples that show childhood is separate, distinct life stage in Western Society
- Laws
- Expectations
- Products and services
- Clothing
What does Wagg suggest about childhood?
there is not one single universal experience of childhood, because it is a social construct
cross cultural differences in childhood
What are the three distinct differences childhood between societies
- They take responsibility at an early age - Children take on responsibilities in the home and the local community. This is not questioned or challenged
- Less value is placed on obedience to adult authority - Among the Trobriand Islanders, adults are tolerant and show interest to children’s sexual explorations and activities
- Children’s sexual behaviour is viewed differently - Firth, 1970 found that among the Tikopia, doing what you are told by an adult is not a right that is expected, rather it is granted by the child
- How are children seen in Western society?
- What are the western norms around childhood?
- children are seen as vulnerable, and unable to tend to themselves
- Separate life stage, nuclear family, education, innocent and vulnerable
Define globalisation
the increased interconnectedness of the world in terms of time and space. There is a global society/culture, rather ones associated with individual countries
What is meant by globalisation of Western childhood? Give an example on how this has been imposed.
- International humanitarian and welfare agencies
- e.g. there are campaigns around child labour and ‘street children’ in developing countries which reflect the western norm and how children ‘should’ be.
historical differences in childhood
What does Aries suggest about childhood?
It has changed overtime
Aries
what was childhood like in the middle ages?
- Childhood as a separate life stage did not exist
- They were seen as mini-adults
Began working from a young age - Law made no distinction between children and adults
- Infants were often neglected in multiple ways
Aries
What was childhood like in durimg the modern notion of childhood?
- Schools began to specialise in education of the young
- Church saw children as fragile ‘creatures of God’ who needed to be protected from evil
- Growing distinction between children and adult clothing
What is the significance of Aries work?
- Shows that childhood is socially constructed
- He shows that ideas of childhood and the status of children changed over time
8 reasons for the changes in the position of children
- Laws restricting child labour and excluding kids from paid work
- declining family size and lower infant mortality rate
- intro. of compulsory schooling
- Kid’s development became the subject of medical knowledge
- Child protection and welfare legislation
- Laws and policies that apply specifically to children
- Growth of the idea of children’s rights
- Industrialisation
disappearance of childhood
What’s happening to childhood and the status of children?
Examples
- Childhood is disappearing at a dazzling speed
- Children are becoming more like adults and the boundaries are becoming blurred
- There is a growing distinction in clothing, leisure and crime patterns
- Vaping, drinking, Greater pressure on children to have their lives decided and planned out than it was before
How does the ‘information hierarchy’ describe the shift in childhood?
Childhood is disappearing because TV culture has replaced print culture
What is print culture?
Children lacked literacy skills so they couldn’t access the information here
‘Adult’ content was kept separate from children
What is TV culture?
Information is made more accessible to children. They view the same content as adults
Boundary is broken down
Less adult authority
A03 to information hierarchy
- restrictions are implemted
- opie = childhood isn’t disappearing and that there’s a strong evidence of childhood existing as separate to adulthood –> western norms of childhood are spreading globally, **childhood isn’t disappearing but spreading **
What is modernity?
Industrialisation and urbanisation started
Capitalism
Rise of scientific knowledge and rational thought
What is postmodernity?
Globalisation and interconnectedness
Unstable, unpredictable
Rapid social change
Increasing importance of mass media
How does Jenks describe childhood in postmodern society ?
-
Childhood is not disappearing, but it is changing
In postmodernity, there is more instability and unpredictability – e.g more divorce.
Children need greater nurturing, protection and surveillance than they had in modernity, to face these changes
There is more regulation of children’s lives
A03 for Jenks
- Not always possible with instability so nurturing and protesting their children’s harder as there are more divorces and in increase in lone parent families
- cost of livinf – parents constantly working
- not all kids exp. instability
- different kids nee diff levels of care
- divorce isn’t a universal experience
What is the M.O.P view ?
Position of childhood has improved and is better than it was in the past
* They are better cared for and protected = There are professionals for their wellbeing and psychological needs etc
* Receive better education =
Government spends money on this
* They have better healthcare and higher standard of living. This means they have better survival chances
* They have more rights =
Laws against child abuse and child labour
cost of living crisis
How has the cost of livinf crisis affected the child centerdness of families?
- Less money to spend on children – tuition, toys, days out
- Both parents having to work – less time to spend with children
