1.2 Childhood Flashcards
(20 cards)
1
Q
Summary
A
- Childhood as a Social Construct
- History of Childhood
- Has Childhood Disappeared or Changed
- Has the Position of Children Improved
2
Q
- Childhood as a Social Construct
A
- Modern Western Notion of Childhood
- Cross-Cultural Differences in Childhood
- Globalisation of Western Childhood
3
Q
- History of Childhood
A
- Middle Ages
- Modern Cult of Childhood
- Reasons for Changes
4
Q
- Has Childhood Disappeared or Changed?
A
- Disappearance
- Evaluation
- Childhood in Postmodernity
- Evaluation
5
Q
- Has the Position of Children Improved?
A
- March of Progress View
- Conflict View
- Neglect and Abuse
- Control Over Children
- New Sociology of the Child
6
Q
1.1 Modern Western Notion of Childhood
A
- Children are seen as fundamentally different (psychologically immature)
- Pilcher: main feature of modern childhood is ‘separateness’ (seen as a distinct life stage)
- Seen through laws regulating children separately
7
Q
1.2 Cross-Cultural Differences in Childhood
A
- Benedict: children in non-industrial societies are generally treated differently in 3 ways…
Responsibility at an Early Age.
- Punch: in rural Bolivia, children took work responsibilities from the age of 5.
Less value placed on adult authority.
- Firth: Among western Pacific, doing as you’re told by an adult was regarded as a concession to be granted by the child.
Sexual behaviour viewed differently
- Malinowski: attitude of ‘tolerance and amused interest’ to children’s sexual exploration.
8
Q
1.3 Globalisation of Western Childhood
A
- Sociologists argue humanitarian agencies have exported western norms of childhood
- E.g. campaigns against child labour
9
Q
2.1 Middle Ages
A
Aries: ‘idea of childhood did not exist’
- Children were ‘mini-adults’ with same rights, duties and skills
- Law made no distinction (children face severe punishments)
- As evidence, Aries uses art from time
- Breugel’s painting shows children and adults similarly
- Shorter: High death rates encouraged indifference and neglect
- Pollock: in Middle Ages there was a different notion of childhood
10
Q
2.2 Modern Cult of Childhood
A
Aries: elements of modern notion of childhood gradually began to emerge from the 13th century onward
- Schools: began to specialise purely in the education of children
- Growing distinction in clothing
- by the 18th century, handbooks on childrearing were widely available (child-centredness)
- Aries: these development culminate in the modern ‘cult of childhood’
11
Q
2.3 Reasons for Changes in the Position of Childhood
A
- Laws Restricting Child Labour
- Economic assets - Economic liabilities - Compulsory Schooling (1880)
- Extended period of dependency - Child Protection and Welfare
- UK: 1889 Cruelty to Children Act, 1989 Children Act
- UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989): Education / Healthcare - Declining IMR and Family Sizes
- Quality > Quantity
12
Q
3.1 Disappearance of Childhood
A
- Postman: childhood is ‘disappearing at a dazzling speed’.
- Mostly the result of the fall in print culture and rise of TV culture.
- Middle Ages: people were illiterate so speech was all that was required to enter adult world
- Postman: childhood emerged as a separate status along with mass literacy
- Printed world created an ‘information hierarchy’ between children and adults.
- This means adults could conserve knowledge about ‘adult’ matters
- TV blurs the distinction by destroying the information hierarchy
13
Q
3.2 Evaluation of Disappearance
A
- Opie: childhood is not disappearing as there is evidence for existence of a separate children’s culture over many years.
14
Q
3.3 Childhood in Postmodernity
A
- Jenks: does not believe childhood is disappearing but believes it is changing
- Modern society: concerned with ‘futurity’ and childhood was seen as a preparation for the individual to become a productive adult in the future
- As a result, the family was ‘child-centred’ and nurturing
- Postmodernity: relationships are more unstable (increase in divorce_
- Generates a feeling of insecurity
- Relationships with children become a source of adult’s identity
- Marriage may end in divorce, but you are still the parent of your child.
15
Q
3.4 Evaluation
A
- Jenks over-generalises
- Implies family diversity is the case for all structures
16
Q
4.1 March of Progress View
+Toxic Childhood
A
- Position of children in the west has improved
- De Mause: “History of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awake”
- Aries and Shorter hold a MOP view
- Argue children are more valued, better cared for, protected and educated
- Historical changes are evidence of this
Child Centred Family:
- Higher living standards + smaller family sizes = parents can afford to provide for children properly
- According to one estimate, by the time a child is 21, they cost £227,000
Toxic Childhood:
- Palmer: argues that rapid technological and cultural changes in the past 25 years has led to the ‘toxic childhood’
- This damages children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development
- UK youth have about average rates for obesity, self-harm and drug / alcohol abuse
- UNICEF: ranked the UK 16th out of 19 for children;s well being.
17
Q
4.2 Conflict View
A
- Marxists and Feminists argue that society is based on a conflict .
Inequalities among children (Class and Gender)
- Hillman: boys more likely to be allowed to have independence (E.g. go our after dark unaccompanied)
- Bonke: girls do more domestic labour
- Poor mothers are likely to have low birth-weight babies (linked to delayed physical and intellectual development)
- Children born into poor families more likely to die in infancy, fall behind at school and suffer longstanding illness
Inequalities between children and adults:
- MOP argue that adults use this power for benefit of children
- Firestone: what MOP see as care are new forms of oppression
- F: ‘protection’ from paid work is not a benefit to children but a form of inequality
18
Q
4.3 Neglect and Abuse
A
- Childline: Receive over 20,000 calls a year claiming to be abused
19
Q
4.4 Control Over Children
A
- Cunningham: ‘home habitat’ of 8 year olds has shrunk 1/9th of what it was 25 years ago
- Also control over children’s time, bodies and access to resources
Age Patriarchy:
- Gittens: there is ‘Age patriarchy of adult domination / child dependency
20
Q
4.5 New Sociology of the Child
A
- Argue that sociologists see children as merely passive objects who have no part in making their own childhoods
- Mayall: ‘adultist’ viewpoint
- ‘New Sociology of Childhood’ takes an approach of seeing children as ‘adults in the making; and as playing major parts in creating their childhoods
