Cards (88)

    • What is the modern western notion of childhood?

      Childhood is a special time of life
    • The conflict view
      The march of progress view is that the position of children has improved dramatically in a relatively short period of time.
      However, conflict sociologists such as Marxists and feminists dispute this. They argue that society is based on a conflict between different social groups such as social classes or genders. In this conflict, some groups have more power, status or wealth than others. Conflict sociologists see the relationship between groups as one of domination and subordination, in which the dominant group act as oppressors.
    • Conflict sociologists argue that the march of progress view of modern childhood is based on a false and idealised image that ignores important inequalities. They criticise the march of progress view on two grounds:
      • There are inequalities among children in terms of the opportunities and risks they face: many today remain unprotected and badly cared for.
      • The inequalities between children and adults are greater than ever: children today experience greater control, oppression and dependency, not greater care and protection.
    • Inequalities among children
      Not all children share the same status or experiences. For example, children of different nationalities are likely to experience different childhoods and different life chances.
      90% of the world's low birth-weight babies are born in developing countries.
    • There are also gender differences between children. For example, according to Mayer Hillman (1993), boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses, and go out after dark unaccompanied. Jens Bonke
      (1999) found that girls do more domestic labour - especially in lone-parent families, where they do five times more housework than boys.
    • Similarly, there are ethnic differences: Julia Brannen's (199a study of 15-16 year olds found that Asian parents were more likely than other parents to be strict towards their daughters. Similarly, Ghazala Bhatti (1999) found that ideas of izzat (family honour) could be a restriction, particularly in the behaviour of girls
    • There are also important class inequalities between children
      • Poor mothers are more likely to have low birth-weight habies, which in turn is linked to delayed physical andintellectual development.
      • Children of unskilled manual workers are over three times more likelv to suffer from hyperactivity and four times more likely to experience conduct disorders than the children of professionals.
      • Children born into poor families are also more likely to die in infancy or childhood, to suffer longstanding illness, to be shorter in height, to fall behind at school, and to be placed on the child protection register.
      Thus we cannot speak of 'children' in general as if they were all equal - social class, gender And ethnic differences all affect their life chances
    • Inequalities between children and adults
      There are also major inequalities of power between children and adults. March of progress writers argue that adults use this power for the benefit and protection of children, for example by passing laws against child labour.
    • However, critics such as Firestone (1979) and Holt (1974) argue that many of the things that march of progress|writers see as care and protection are in fact just new forms of oppression and control. For example, Firestone argues that 'protection' from paid work is not a benefit to children but a form of inequality. It is a way of forcibly segregating children, making them more dependent, powerless and subject to adult control than previously.
    • These critics see the need to free children from adult control, and so their view is described as 'child liberationism'. Adult control takes a number of forms.
    • neglect and abuse
      Adult control over children can take the extreme form of physical neglect or physical, sexual or emotional abuse. In 2020, 50,000 children were subject to child protection plans because they were deemed to be at risk of significant harm - most often from their own parents (see Table 4C). The charity ChildLine receives over 20,000 calls a year from children saying that they have been sexually or physically abused. Such figures indicate a
      'dark side' to family life of which children are the victims.
    • controls over children's space
      Children's movements in industrial societies such as Britan are highly regulated. For example, shops may displaysigns such as 'no schoolchildren'. Children are told to play in some areas and forbidden to play in others. There is increasingly close surveillance over children in public spaces such as shopping centres, especially at times when they should be in school.
    • Similarly, fears about road safety and 'stranger danger' have led to more and more children being driven to school rather than travelling independently. For example, in 1971, 86% of primary school children were allowed to travel home from school alone. By 2013, only 12% travelled unaccompanied According to Hugh Cunningham (2007), the 'home haoitat" of 8 year olds (the area in which they are able to travel alone) has shrunk to one-ninth of the size it was 25 years earlier.
    • This control and surveillance contrasts with the independence of many children in developing countries today. For example, Cindi Katz (2004) describes how rural Sudanese children roam freely both within the village and for several kilometres outside it.
    • controls over children's time
      Adults in modern society control children's daily routines, including the times when they get up, eat, go to school, come home, go out, play, watch television and sleep. Adults also control the speed at which children grow up'. It is they who define whether a child is too old or too young for this or that civity, responsibility or behaviour. This contrasts with Holmes' finding that among Samoans,
      'too young' is never given as a
      reason for not letting a child undertake a particular task.
    • controls over children's bodies
      Adults exercise enormous control over children's bodies, including how they sit, walk and run, what they wear (sun hats, make-up, glasses), their hairstyles and whether or not they can have their ears pierced. It is taken for granted that children's bodies may be touched (in socially acceptable ways by specific adults): they are washed, fed and dressed, have their heads patted and hands held, are picked up, cuddled and kissed, and they may be disciplined by smacking.
    • controls over children's bodies
      At the same time, adults restrict the ways in which children may touch their own bodies. For example, a child may be told not to pick their nose, suck their thumb or play with their genitals. This contrasts with the sexual freedoms enjoyed by children in some non-industrial cultures such as the Trobriand Islands.
    • control over children's access to resources In industrial societies, children have only limited opportunities to earn money, and 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.
      • Although the state pays child benefit, this goes to the parent not the child.
      • Pocket money given by parents may depend on 'good behaviour' and there may be restrictions on what it can , be spent on.
    • control over children's access to resources
      All this contrasts with the economic role of children in developing societies today and in European societies in the past. For example, Katz found that Sudanese children were already engaged in productive work from the age of three or four.
    • Age patriarchy
      Diana Gittins (1998) uses the term 'age patriarchy' to describe inequalities between adults and children. Just as feminists use the concept of patriarchy to describe male domination and female dependency, Gittins argues that there is also an age patriarchy of adult domination and child dependency. In fact, patriarchy means literally rule by the father' and as Gittins points out, the term 'family' referred) originally to the power of the male head over all other members of the household, including children and servants as well as women.
    • Age Patriarchy
      Today this power may still assert itself in the form of violence against both children and women. For example, according to Cathy Humphreys and Ravi Thiara (2002), a quarter of the 200 women in their study left their abusing partner because they feared for their children's lives. (See Topic 1 for more about domestic violence.) Such findings support Gittins' view that patriarchy oppresses children as well as women.
    • Evidence that children may experience childhood as oppressive comes from the strategies that they use to resist the status of child and the restrictions that go with it. Jennifer Hockey and Allison James (1993) describe one strategy as 'acting up. - acting like adults by doing things that children are not, supposed to do, such as swearing, smoking, drinking alcohol, joy riding and under-age sexual activity. Similarly, children may exaggerate their age (I'm nearly 9).
    • 'Acting down' - behaving in ways expected of younger children - is also a popular strategy for resisting adult
      control (e.g. by reverting to 'baby talk' or insisting on being carried). Hockey and James conclude that modern childhood is a status from which most children want to escape.
    • However, critics of the child liberationist view argue that some adult control over children's lives is justified on the grounds that children cannot make rational decisions and so are unable to safeguard their interests themselves.
      Critics also argue that, although children remain under adult supervision, they are not as powerless as the child liberationists claim. For example, as we saw earlier, the 1989 Children Act and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child establish the principle that children have legal rights to be protected and consulted.
    • The 'new sociology of childhood'
      The views we have examined so far see childhood as socially constructed; that is, shaped by social processes such as industrialisation, laws and government policies, and institutions such as the family and education system.
    • The 'new sociology of childhood'
      While this helps us to understand how childhood changes over time, there is a danger of seeing children as merely passive objects who have no part in making their own childhoods. It risks seeing children from what Berry Mayall
      (2004) calls an 'adultist' viewpoint. That is, it may see children as mere 'socialisation projects' for adults to mould, shape and develop, of no interest in themselves, but only for what they will become in the future.
    • New sociology of childhood
      A different view is taken by the 'new sociology of childhood'. This approach doesn't see children as simply 'adults in the making'. Instead, it sees children as active agents who play a major part in creating their own childhoods.
    • Who conducted a study on children's definitions of family?
      Mason and Tipper
    • How do children define 'family' according to Mason and Tipper?
      They include people they regard as 'close'
    • What did Smart et al.'s study on divorce reveal about children?
      Children were actively involved in the situation
    • What research methods are commonly used in studies about children's perspectives?
      • Informal interviews
      • Unstructured interviews
      • Empower children to express views
      • Allow researchers to understand children's viewpoints
    • Why are informal, unstructured interviews beneficial in research with children?
      They empower children to express their views
    • What is the main focus of studies like those conducted by Mason, Tipper, and Smart et al.?
      To understand the child's point of view
    • Smart notes, there are 'disabled childhoods, Chinese childhoods, girls' childhoods, the childhoods of adopted children, poor childhoods and so on'.
      Because it allows children to express their point of view, the new sociology of childhood also draws attention to the fact that children often lack power in relation to adults. As such, it is an approach favoured by child liberationists who campaign in favour of children's rights and priorities.
    • What is the most important feature of the modern idea of childhood according to Jane Pilcher?
      Separateness
    • How is childhood viewed in modern society?
      As a clear and distinct life stage
    • What is one way laws emphasize the separateness of childhood?

      Regulating what children can do
    • How does dress emphasize the difference between children and adults?
      Through differences in clothing styles
    • What are some products and services specifically designed for children?
      Toys, food, books, and play areas