Childhood as a social construction
- Created by: Jessica Speight
- Created on: 08-05-14 13:43
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- Childhood
- Childhood as a social construction
- Positives
- 3) more money
- 2) less working hours
- 4) better education
- 1) less children per family
- Negatives
- 3) Still poor health and education
- 2)Still poverty
- Children still get prostituted and addicted to drugs
- 1) child abuse still exists
- NICK LEE
- Sees growing up as a journey towards stability. Children have been defined in relation to adulthood.
- Adults are becoming more like children: both in the state of defining and redefining their identities. Both unstable and incomplete.
- Childhood has become more complex and ambiguous. Children are dependant on their parents.
- Children have influence as consumers but depend on parents with their purchasing powers.
- the social construction of childhood isn't a natural or biological stage, it is by culture.
- Positives
- Changes in the position of children
- Children are now precious and a priority in society.
- 1) children in the past were expected to die due to poor health etc. Now the infant mortality rate has decreased, parents now invest more emotionally and financially in their children.
- 2)Laws are now in place to protect children : compulsory education, age restrictions on games, minimum working age,cruelty to children act 1889.
- 3)People now work fewer hours therefore they have more times to spend with children.
- 4) Children can now access the internet. some adults may not be able to protect children bringing danger back.
- Children are now precious and a priority in society.
- Death of childhood
- Present
- Viewed as being extremely precious: laws have been put in place to protect children and a lot of media, toys and magazines are focused around children to make their childhood as fun as possible.
- Past
- In medieval society, childhood didn't exist. Children were treat as "little adults" as soon as they could walk, talk and feed themselves.
- Future
- NEIL POSTMAN: childhood can only exist if it is separated and protected from the adult world. Media have wiped out secrecy causing the barrier between childhood and adulthood to break down.
- Present
- Childhood in different cultures
- The townsend Centre for International Poverty Research 2003
- 1) over 1/3 of the worlds children are in absolute poverty.
- 2) 134 million aged 7-18 have never been to school.
- 3) Many of these children come from countries affected by civil war, becoming child soldiers.
- The townsend Centre for International Poverty Research 2003
- Childhood as a social construction
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