Childhood

• Modern Western notion of childhood

  • Children lack skills, knowledge and experience so need a protected period of nurturing before becoming an adult
  • Pilcher - modern idea of childhood seen as distinct stage and differ from adults - emphasised in several ways:
  • Laws regulating what children can do
  • Adults dress differently
  • Services and products
  • Cunningham - 19th century saw the social construct of childhood by adults, childhood was seen to have 3 major factors:
  • Opposite of adulthood
  • World of adults and world children should be seperate
  • Children to see the right to happiness
• Golden age of childhood

  • Childhood is viewed to be filled with happiness and innocence
  • Innocence means children are seen as vulnerable and need of protection from the adult world
  • Children live largely in the sphere of family and education where adults provide for them and protect them from the outside world
• Childhood as social construct: Key sociologist

  • Aries - claims that childhood in western societies was created during the process of industrialisation.
  • Aries claims that experiences of childhood has significantly progressed to create a child centred society that we currently live in and therefore believes that childhood is a social construct
• Childhood being seperate from adults is not a universal view

  • This view of childhood having a seperate age status is not found in all societies
  • Wagg - There is no single universal experience of childhood, childhood is not natural and should be distinguished from biological immaturity - each child is raised differently so it cant be down to genetics
  • All humans go through the same stages of physical development but different cultures construct definitions of this process differently
  • Other cultures do not move such a clear distinguish between adult and childhood
• Cross-Cultural differences in childhood

  • In some pre-industrial societies, communities do not view children in the same way as western countries
  • For example - children are expected to worked full time alongside their family. This contrasts to UK society as children are not allowed to work full time until the age of 16 an those who do decide to take on part time employment their rights are protected by laws to ensure their wellbeing
• Cross-Cultural differences in childhood: Key sociologist

  • Benedict: children in simpler non-industrial societies are treated differently in 3 ways

  1. Take responsibility at an early day - Holmes - Samoan culture 'too young' was never a reason a child not to do a task
  2. Less values placed on children showing adult authority obedience - Firth - Tikopia of the western specific is children dont do what adults tell them to do
  3. Children sexual behaviour is viewed differently - Malinowski - Trobriand islanders had a attitude of violence, amused interests regarding children sexual exploration
• Globalisation of Western childhood

  • Western cultures of childhood have now been globalised
  • International humanitarian and welfare agencies have imposed western notions of how children should be treated - seperate life stages, in a nuclear family
  • Campaigns against child labour reflect western notions about what childhood should be
  • Child labour may be important preparation for adult life
• Historical differences in childhood - Key points

  • Aries - argues in the middle ages the idea of childhood did not exist, children were not seen to have different needs or a different nature from adults once they had passed through infancy:
  • After weaning the child entered wider society on the same terms as adults
  • Children had led to work from early ages
  • They were viewed as 'mini adults' with the same skills, rights and duties
  • Evidence - Aries used artwork from the period - the paintings show adults and children dressed in the same clothing, working and playing together
• Historical differences in childhood - Key points (2)

  • Shorter - argues high death rates encouraged indifference and neglect
  • It was not uncommon for parents to give a new born baby the name of a recently dead sibling, to refer to the baby as 'it' or to forget how many children they had
• Reasons for changes in position of childhood

  • Laws restricting child labour and paid work - children have moved from economic assets to liabilities
  • Introduction of compulsory schooling - longer time of dependency
  • Child protection act and welfare legislation - 1889, prevention of cruelty to children act - 1989 children's act
  • Decline in family size and infant mortality rate - fewer children but have greater financial and emotional investment
  • Age restrictions
  • Children development became subject of medical knowledge - Donzelot theories of child development stress need for protection
• Modern cult of childhood

  • Aries - modern childhood emerged from the 13th century on wards - schools came to specialise purely in education of the young - reflect influence of church which saw children as fragile 'creatures of god' in need of discipline and protection - growing distinction between adults and children's clothing, 18th century handbooks on child bearing were available
  • Aries sees 20th century as the 'century of childhood'
  • Pollock - criticises Aries for suggesting that childhood did not exist in the past, more correct to say the middle ages have a different notion of childhood
• Disappearance of childhood

  • Postman - argues childhood is disappearing at a rapid speed:
  • Trend towards giving children the same rights as adults, disappearance of traditional unsupervised games, similarly in clothing
  • In middle ages most were illiterate and speech was only skill needed for participation in adult world - so children were able to enter the adult world at an early age
  • Childhood was not associated with innocent nor the adult world with mystery - no division between the world of adult and child
• Information hierarchy

  • Postman - childhood emerged as a seperate status along with mass literacy:
  • Printed world created information heirachy
  • Gave adults power to keep knowledge about sex, money, violence, illness, death and all adult matter a secret from children
  • TV blurs this distinction, by destroying the information hierarchy - not require specialist skills to access so both children and adults can access them
• Evaluation of Postman

  • Opie - argues childhood is not disappearing:
  • Studied children's unsupervised games, rhymes and songs
  • Strong evidence of continued existence of seperate child culture over the year
  • Postman is valuable in demonstrating how differencing information communication styles can influence how childhood is constructed
• Childhood in postmodernity

  • Jenks - argues childhood is not disappearing, just changing:
  • Jenks agrees with Aries that childhood is a creation of modern society
  • Modern society is concerned with 'futurity' - preparation to become productive adult
  • To achieve this vulnerable, undeveloped child needs to be nurtured, protected and controlled
  • Postmodern society generate feeling on insecurity - relationships with children become more important as a source of adult hood
  • Relationships with children become stronger - making adults more fearful for the safety of their children
• Childhood in postmodernity (2)

  • Jenks disagrees with Postman that childhood is disappearing - childhood remains seperate status with restrictions that mark them apart from adults
  • Evidence for Jenks is limited and from small under representative studies - overgeneralises statements made suggesting all children have similar diverse lives
• Has position of childhood improved? - March of Progress view

  • Argues the position of children has steadily been improving and in todays society it is better than it has been in the past
  • De Mause - further back in history the lower the childcare, the more likely children are to be abused and killed
  • Aries and Shorter - hold a march of progress view that children have more values and are better cared for, protected and educated, better health and have more rights then previous generations
  • Children are better protected from harm and exploitation by law again child abuse and child labour
• Has position of childhood improved? - Child centred family

  • March of progress sociologists argue that families have become much more child centred, children are no longer seen not to be heard but instead are the focal point of there family
  • Parents now greatly invest in their child both financially and emotionally
  • Higher living standards and smaller family sizes means parent can provide for their children's needs
• Has position of childhood improved? - Neglect and abuse

  • In 2013, 43 thousand children put on protection plans as they were deemed at risk of serious harm
  • Childline receives around 20,000 calls a year saying they have been sexually or physically abused
  • 'Dark side of family'
• Has position of childhood improved? - Control over children's space

  • Movement of children in highly regulated, close surveillance over children in public spaces
  • Fears over strangers and road safety means more children are driven to school instead of going independently
  • Cunningham - 'home habitat' for 8 year olds have shrunk to 1/9th size than it was 25 years ago
  • Karz - surveillance contrasts with rural Sudan where children can roam freely in their village and several km beyond
• Has position of childhood improved? Control over children's time

  • Adults control daily routines and speed children grow up, they define what behaviour, responsibility or activity is age appropriate
• Has position of childhood improved? - Control over children's bodies

  • Adults have enormous control over their child's body
  • Includes what they wear, walk, sit, eat, exercise
  • Taken for granted that children can be touched such as washing, feeding, cuddled disciplined
  • Adults also restrict what the child can do with their body
• Has position of childhood improved? - Toxic childhood

  • Palmer - children are now experiences toxic childhood - rapid technological and cultural changes have damaged children physical, emotional and intellectual development - these include junk food, long parental working hours, and testing in education
• Has position of childhood improved? - Inequalities among children

  • Children have different childhood and life chances - 90% low birth weight babies are born in developing countries
  • Gender differences between children:
  • Hillman - boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on the roads, use buses and go out after dark
  • Bonke - girls do more domestic labour
  • Class differences:
  • Poor mothers are likely to have low birth weight babies - linked to delayed physical and intellectual development
  • Children of unskilled workers are 3x more likely to suffer from hyperactivity
• Has position of childhood improved? - Conflict view

  • Conflict sociologists argue that the march or progress view of modern childhood is based off of an idealised image that ignores inequalities:
  • There are inequalities among children in terms of the opportunities and risks they face - mainly today many remained unprotected and badly cared for
  • The inequalities among children and adults are greater than ever - children experience greater control, oppression and dependency
• Age patriarchy

  • Age patriarchy is a term used to describe inequalities between children and adults, it refers to situations where adults control children and keep them in a state of dependency
  • Gittens - Adult dominations and child dependency
  • Humphrey and Thiara - 1/4 of 200 women in their study and found that they left their abusive partner in fear for their children
  • Some sociologists argue the control from adults is justified as children cannot make rational decisions and so are unable to safeguard their interests -UN rights of children gives them more control over their lives
• Age patriarchy (2)

  • Further evidence that childhood may be experienced as oppressive comes from children resisting the status of childhood an restrictions that come with it
  • Hockey and James - one strategy is 'acting up' where children act like adults by doing things they are not supposed to like drinking, smoking, swearing or 'acting down' where they behave younger than they are
• New sociology of childhood

  • This approach doesn't see children as adults in the making - it sees children as active agents who play a major role in making their own childhood - Mayall - risks only having an adultist viewpoint, may see children as socialisation projects for adults to mould
• New sociology of childhood - Child view point

  • Smart argues the new approach aims to include the views and experience of children themselves while they are living through childhood
  • Mayall - need to focus on present experience of childhood to study ordinary everyday of the child
  • Mason and Tipper - children actively create their own definitions of who is family - not necessarily related but close bonds