Childhood in crisis?

Contours of a crisis
1. Sue Palmer - Toxic Childhood 2006 - claims that consumerism, technological advances, academic pressure and increased parental surveillance is damaging our children
2. Furedi 2001 - Media paints picture of family in crisis - which puts pressure on families/induces fear and paranoi
3. 2007 Good Childhood Inquiry showed that parents felt more time was needed with friends but were reluctant to let children out to play/also felt children were too materialistic
Crisis in context
1. Cunningham (1995) -Looking at ideas about childhood from a historical perspective can help us to understand how concerns about childhood are raised
2. Is the crisis a moral panic - can it be linked to societal anxiety about change
  1. Pearson - studied the relationship between youth crime (Artful Dodger) and the social change behind the Industrial Revoloution - his idea was the social change can produce unrest which can be seen as acts of resistance and protest in the young. Also when interpreting young people's behaviour we need to consider links between the past and the present - comparisons of the two help us to see why adults consider youth a problem
3. Giddens, Beck and Bauman suggest that self-identity is a modern project and that we now have responsibility for our own biographies.
  1. Giddens - suggests that romantic love has transformed from external obligation to a bond of trust and emotional intimacy within the relationship - deemed as the pure relationship
    1. The child might be the anchor that holds the adult relationship together
  2. Beck sees socities transformation as the reason for these intimate relationships - loss of security/traditional values/loss of family and locality
  3. As traditional family structures break down we can see the 'pure relationship at work - think of single sex families or blended families
Parenting in late modernity
1. Alison Clarke's study of the birthday party - once small affairs are now elaborate events. They put the family on show and can be used to form bonds between mothers whilst alienating those without the resources to compete
2. Links between romantisicm and science when we consider children - for example the scan or stem cell retrieval
3. Christina Hardyment - 'Buy a Better Baby' - looks at how we are informed by the market and consumer practice when it comes to raising our children. Even if we choose the 'ethical approach' there is always something involving consumption - all are potential sites of division between mothers.

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Childhood in crisis?

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	Created by Laura Vieira almost 9 years ago