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The follow-up to "What's Wrong With Kids These Days" — this one, especially, will probably make no sense if you weren't in my class. Sorry! (Hopefully I'll record audio for it one day.)
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THEPOLITICAL ECONOMY
OF CHILDHOOD
“who owns children?”children’s legal & political rights
children’s work
children as consumers
“the universal childhood”
cultural &structural approaches to
childhood
topic six:
‘childhood’ as a cultural form
kids are rude
immoral
lazy & greedy
stupid
at-risk
‘childhood’ as a structural form
a political economy approach to childhood
powerrelations
political public policy
laws
economicproduction,
distribution, and consumption
economics
cultural political/economic
adapted from jason hart
values, attitudes, patterns of behavior – and the effect these have on
children’s lives
human relations and interactions
local, micro-level
political/economic forces that produce and reproduce the
material conditions of children’s lives
institutions and their workings
national/global or macro-level
cultural political/economic
adapted from jason hart
Why are there low rates of enrollment and participation in schooling in some countries?
cultural reasons structural reasons (e.g. political economic)
adapted from jason hart
“We cling to a fantasy that once upon a time childhood and youth were years of
carefree adventure…The notion of a long childhood, devoted to education
and free from adult responsibilities, is a very recent invention, and one that became a reality for a majority of children only after World War II.”
– Steven Mintz, Huck’s Raft
why do we need a political-economic
focus on children’s lives?
who owns children?
children’s legal rights
children’s work
children as consumers
children’s legal rights
children’s work
children as consumers
parents society
children are dependent
parents bear economic responsibility for
children’s physical needs
autonomy over house and household
future members of society and polity
intervention on labor and education issues
funding for social programs depends on
economic interpretations
parents society
children’s legal rights
children’s work
children as consumers
children’s work
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE END OF CHILD FACTORY WORK:
development of universal, compulsory education
technological advances in machinery
unionization of labour, which led to higher wages – enough for a
“breadwinner”to support a family
Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE CONTINUATION OF CHILD
FACTORY WORK IN THE SOUTH:
lack of technological advance due to role of ‘global South’ in the global
economy (i.e. source of cheap labour)
effect of free trade rules that prevent growth of indigenous industries in
‘global South’
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE CONTINUATION OF CHILD
FACTORY WORK IN THE SOUTH:
lack of social mobility for poor children who remain in school
banning or constraint of trade unions
acceptance of child factory work
combatting...
child labouror
poverty?
children’s legal rights
children’s work
children as consumers
the construction of the child consumer
“These experiences have the advantage also of creating in the child a sense of
personal, as well as family, pride in ownership, and eventually teaching him that his personality can be expressed
through things.”
– White House, 1931
is there such a thing as a universal childhood?
Industrialized Countries
(United States, Europe)
Working Class Middle Class
Daily Reality
Common (Mis-)perceptions
BASIS FOR UNIVERSAL
CHILDHOOD
Peripheral Countries
(Latin America, Asia)
Working ClassPeasants
Middle ClassIndustrialists
Daily Reality
Common (Mis-)perceptions
Emulates Universal
(American) Childhood
Children of the World
contexts of children’s daily lives
familycommunityschoolworkmedia
universal childhood?
Childhood is socially constructed as a consequence of children’s and adult’s
political-economic activities across different historical periods and
cultural variables – yielding a range and variety of “childhoods”, rather
than a universal phenomenon.
A universal culture of capitalism and consumerism.
“The world seen from the point of view of the consumer is very
different from the world as seen from the perspective of worker,
capitalist, or people of other cultures around the world.”
– Richard Robbins Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism
“who owns children?”children’s legal & political rights
children’s work
children as consumers
“the universal childhood”
