The Sociology of the Life Course

2 – The sociology of childhood

Accompaniment to the superb Giddens and Sutton (2013) (left) Chapter 9, with an assortment of additional accompanying resources and activities

Contents

2 The sociology of childhood

Also in the series…1 Introduction to the sociology of age and the life

course3 The sociology of youth and adolescence4 The sociology of young adulthood5 The sociology of mature adulthood6 The sociology of later life

2 The life stages in socio-historical perspective:

1- Childhoodsee Giddens and Sutton

2013:348

.

As in most areas of sociology, the sociology of childhood is based on the idea that this

phenomenon is in part

socially-constructed… ie

not based entirely on the same ancient laws of nature governing the remaining .

As Giddens’ human-existance-as-24-hour-day analogy shows on G&S2013:108,

modernity is an extremely “recent” event in human history; and cultural

changes since early modernity have occurred at lightening speed relative to those of the vast

majority homo sapiens’ existence

No area demonstrates this more purely

than the life course; in

particular, childhood

Stages in the life course are

influenced by cultural differences but also by

the material circumstances (affluence) of people’s lives in

given types of society.

Giddens and Sutton 2013:346

The above applies to both the stage of life

each individual is at, right

now; and the culturally-specific social meaning attached to these stages at

various points in time

Sociologists, and common sense in general, have long identified

“childhood”; early life- a time of

being biologically and psychologically pre-developed

As functionalists

such as Parsons and

Merton, along with

feminists,

Marxists and others, all agree that it is at this stage that

people are most actively

socialized(Below) Karl Marx as a young adult

ExerptThree years ago, while she was on maternity leave, Ros Ball and her partner, James, began a diary of their children's lives. Their daughter Josie was three and their son Clem three months old. They wanted to record the moments when their children were made aware of gender stereotypes; when they were directed towards a view of the world in which girls and boys inhabit separate, rigid spheres of pink and blue – the first sphere passive, pretty and gentle, the second aggressive, active and strong…(Continues at above link)

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/22/gendered-toys-stereotypes-boy-girl-segregation-equality

The fightback against gendered toysDo all girls really want to play with dolls and tea sets? Do all boys want guns and trucks? Of course not. Then why are toymakers so aggressive in marketing these stereotypes?

Kira CochraneThe Guardian, Tuesday 22 April 2014 

Children are socialized by “agents” -

their families,

early education, and the

mass media

Activity:

List (i) two values, and (ii) two behaviour patterns children are socialized with for each of the agents in this slide

In most views of childhood, it is relevant as

a transitory stage of

learning and training; our gender, social class and consumer identities are developed most quickly at

this time

The educational and leisure experiences of

children, and the socializing messages young individuals

receive, are quite rightly seen as

highly important to

them, and society

Key to all socialization theories of “childhood” is the notion that these

individuals are, naturally and inevitably,

incomplete;

transitory, half-finished adults

Activity:

What does ‘transitory’ mean; and how does it apply to the conventional view of childhood?

This links with the idea that children are v_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, w_ _ _, n_ _ve, in_ _ _ _ _ _ etc.; and together they are

an even more pervasive

notion than that of little girls being naturally

effeminate ie “girly”, or that

working-class children are more likely to be

“naturally stupid

(or, “low ability”)

Activity:

If a norm or value is ‘pervasive’, does this mean it is commonly held, or not?

Activity: List five adjectives you think survey respondents would associate with the noun “child”

Extension: Conduct this survey

In recent years, the sociology and social history of childhood has moved beyond

the notion that childhood is

necessarily a time of

vulnerability, dependence and

innocence…

Despite the obvious importance and accuracy

of socialization theories, many believe something is

missing

Missing –say many- is the notion that these associations of

vulnerability, under-development and

innocence are time-space specific;

not based on natural laws but rather

modern social processes and the

material/economic conditions of our social era

Philip Aries (1962):

Centuries of Childhood

Our current concept of childhood is a specifically modern one; which only dates back to the

early industrial revolution

In the 18th century, for the first time, childhood began to be seen

as a time of learning and

development; and children became an economic

liability for their parents.

Activity:

If children became an economic ‘liability’ for their families, what were they before? Why?

A_ _ _ _s

Children worked throughout pre-modernity(below) and in

early-modern factories(above); but were

later removed and educated instead- starting with the

upper classes

Rather than working with other family members in

cottage trades,

farms or early factories and

workhouses, children were increasingly sent to

school, and cared for by nannies (later, modern

childcare)

The modern “child”, for Aries (1962) was an upper-class

phenomenon that

trickled-down to the proletariat eventually

‘Trickle-down’ theory of culture is associated with Pierre Bourdieu (below)

According to Aries (1962), “children” –rich and poor- depicted in pre- and early-modern paintings

and books were of course

physically under-developed; but not as

socially or psychologically as in the present era

Aries provides some evidence that pre-modern “children” were more

“miniature adults”

than today; in their clothing, body language and facial expressions

Activity:

What is one flaw in taking pre-modern paintings as a representation of reality?

In pre-modern settings, many now believe,

“Children took part in the same work and play activities as adults, rather than in the childhood games we now take for granted”.

Giddens and Sutton2013:349

They wore clothing no different to

adults; quickly learned to speak in the same tones and with the same vocabulary; and

worked and relaxed together with older generations

From this key social history stem late-modern

theories that everything associated with childhood need not be:

We are, in late-modernity, over-pampering, over-

protecting and patronizing our young people; and this functions as a boost to the capitalist mode

of production

Activity:

Why might this social construction of childhood support the capitalist MoP? (then see next slide)

Leaving a sizeable proportion of society in training for around 15 years produces a more skilled workforce, clearly;

…and without schools, where would we learn the

disciplinary and social skills necessary to every good worker or citizen?

Childhood, and as we shall see, adolescence/young adulthood, are in

late-modernity, times of a very special

sort of identity-forming consumerism that

wouldn’t exist if

uneducated “miniature adults” were working alongside adults

from ten years of age

Today, in some “still developing” parts of the

world , something similar to Aries’ pre-modern

“miniature adulthood” still

exists

In countries lacking full industrialization and

corresponding long, full,

compulsory education, it is

still common for children to work in family cottage

trades…

in factories (often supplying the industrialized world’s consumer goods)…

Even as

soldiersActivity:

How do think most citizens of the “developed world” would feel about the scenes depicted here? Would similar public attitudes have existed in Medieval times?

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), 1990:

This groundbreaking agreement –signed by 194 countries by 2009- set

out “basic human rights” for people under 18

Among them was the right to education, and to not have to “work”.

Activity:

Giddens (2013:349) defines this “attempt to universalize the right of children and childhood in very different social and economic contexts” a “bold task that raises some important issues”. Why is it bold? Isn’t it “obvious” that children should go to school and not work?

What controversies does it raise in poorer countries?

The problem –sadly for Western children's’ charities like UNICEF – is that the

household economies of families in many poorer countries, and

therefore the macro economies, depend on children

still being an

economic asset to their parents

.

• .

They have to work to support their family, and

themselves…they may be making 1st-world clothing in industrialized factories, but

their cultural norms remain those of pre-modernity (as in the vast majority

of human history)Activity:

Should we pity the pre-modern, uneducated, working child?

Are there reasons to feel sympathy with the late-modern child?

.

Giddens and Sutton (2013:349):

“Is the UN definition of childhood culturally sensitive to different

societies, or does it impose (unworkable)

Western ideas of children and childhood on the rest of

the world?”

Will the UNCRC really

improve lives and

economies, or will it restrict the economic development of families too

much in the short term by banning children from working?

Often, the task of the sociologist it to ask “says who..?”

In wider society –more crucially- new technology, the internet and an easily-accessed, globalized mass media are

believed to be reversing the infantilization trend

Children are becoming “free”

consumers at an earlier age; and are consuming products

and entertainment previously seen as “for adults”

Activity:

How could the late-modern childhood experience be improved for the good of society and the individual?

Others, on the other hand, argue that we are in fact

infantilizing everyone- not only

children

Many critics echo the warnings

of the Frankfurt School critical theorists, such as Theodor Adorno, the

‘culture industry’ of pop music, “trashy” novels and movies,

robs adults of their maturity; their ability to

think rationally and

critically

The culture industry robs not only children, but also adults of their

ability to

question capitalist inequality and unfair power

relations… potentially

turning us all into the late-modern

infant

Activity: Does a ‘culture industry’ exist? Does it have a positive of negative effect on children, and adults?