Childhood

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Modern Western Notion + Cross-Cultural Differences

Childhood = 'Golden Age' of innocence. Pilcher - 'modern childhood defined by separateness'.

+ Children have separate status and must be protected from adult life.

BUT not universal view: Wagg - childhood is socially constructed. No single universal experience.

Childhood is not a fixed, universal thing but varies culture-to-culture. 

Benedict - childhood differs in non-industrial societies:

1) Responsibility at Earlier Age  2) Less value on obedience  3) Different Sexual Behaviour

Study: Malinowski - Trobriand Islanders were tolerant on children's sexual explorations.

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Historical Differences + Modern Cult

Ariés - concept of childhood did not exist in Medieval Europe. 

+ Study of paintings - Children depicted same as adults on a smaller scale. Worked and behaved like adults.

Shorter - High death rates encouraged indifference/neglect to infacts. Referred as 'it' or named the same as a dead sibling.

Ariés - from C13th schools specialised in education of the young, reflecting church 'fragile creatures'. C17th - distinction between children's and adults' clothing. C18th - Handbooks on childrearing - child-centred family. C20th - Century of the child

Evaluation:

Pollock - Wrong to say childhood didnt exist, rather different notion of it in Medial Europe.

BUT Ariés work is valuable bc it shows childhood is a social construction.

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Reasons for Changes in Position

Industrialisation underlines many of the reasons:

  • Laws restricting child labour 
  • Compulsory Schooling 
  • Child protection legislation - 1889 Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act
  • Idea of children's rights - UN Convention on the Rights of Child - right to healthcare, education
  • Lower Infant Mortality Rate 
  • Progress in Children's Health - Denzelot - C19th theories stressed children needed protection
  • Laws with age restrictions - smoking, sex
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Future: Disappearance

Postman - childhood is disappearing (ex: similarity in clothing + same rights as adults). Reason: the fall of print culture and rise of TV culture. 

+ Information Hierarchy - From C19th childhood was separate bc adults could read and hide knowledge about 'bad' topics thus childhood was innocent/ignorant. TV blurs this because anyone can access it. Disappearence of adulthood - adults' and children's tastes/styles r indistinguishable.

Evaluation:

Opie - childhood is not disappearing. Strong evidence of continued existence of separate children's culture. 

Postman over-emphasises TV as a single cause. 

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Future: Postmodernity

Jenks - childhood is only changing

Modernity: Concerned with futurity and preparation to be an adult. Children needed to be nurtured by a child-centered family. Adults' relationships were more stable. 

Postmodernity: Adults' relationships become unstable, divorce more common. Relationships with children become important source of identity. Over-protection of children, resulting in even more separateness from before and greater surveillance of children's lives.

Evaluation:

There is more evidence that parents see relationships with children as more important than with parents, but from small unrepresentative studies.

Jenks over-generalises despite family diversity to imply all children are in same position.

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Has the Position Improved? MoP View

Childhood is steadility getting better. It is better now than it has ever been due to childcare, rights, education + smaller child-centred families and better healthcare, lower IMR.

Ariés and Shorter held MoP view. Parents can provide for needs of smaller families better. Family is child-centred + high financial/emotional investment from parents: Cost of raising a child until 21 is ~£227k.

Toxic Childhood

Palmer - Rapid tech/cultural changes in past 25 years damaged children's emotional, physical + intellectual development.

UNICEF - UK is 21/25 for children's wellbeing

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Has the Position Improved? Conflict View

Society is based on conflict which arises from power inequalities. MoP view is idealitistic.

Inequalities among children:                                                                                                            Not all children have same status/experience.                                                                           Bonke - girls do more domestic labour, especially in lone-parent families: 5x more than boys.          Brannen - Asian parents more likely to be strict towards daughters.                                          Children of unskilled manual workers 3x more likely to suffer from hyperactivity.

Inequalities between children and adults:                                                                                            Firestone & Holt - many things seens as protection by MoP are in fact ways to oppress children:     Neglect and abuse (ChildLine over 20k calls a year); Control over space (1971 86% travelled home alone, 2010 25%), time, bodies, resources (labour laws mean children are dependent + child benefit goes to parent)

 Age Patriarchy:

Gittins - Adult domination/child dependency. Patriarchy: 'rule by father'. Society oppresses women/children - 200 women study left abuse because fear for children.

Hockey - Acting Up/Acting Down

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Position: 'New Sociology of Childhood'

Mayall - Idea that childhood is socially constructed risks seeing children as passive 'socialisation projects' from 'adultist' viewpoint.

Children are active agents who play major part in creating own childhood.

Mason - Children actively create their definitions of who is family. 

Smart - use of empowering methods (unstructured interviews) uncover the many childhoods from pov of children themselves. Study: Children in divorce take an active role in making situation better. 

Explore diverse, multiple childhoods within a single society. 'disabled childhoods, Chinese childhoods, poor childhoods'

Draws attention to fact that children often lack power in relation to adults, thus approach favoured by child liberationists.

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