Journals Information
Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 5(8), pp. 590 - 599
DOI: 10.13189/sa.2017.050803
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Children without Childhood - Proletarianization of Children and Its Implications
Mariam John Meynert *
Independent Educational/Childhood Researcher, Sweden
ABSTRACT
Aries's famous book Centuries of childhood (1962), has influenced the widely acknowledge view that the concept of childhood is a social and cultural construction. Cross-cultural and historical researches have asserted that the idea of childhood has varied across different cultures and epochs thus belying the universal conceptualizations of childhood. Hermeneutical readings of historical and sociological texts have encouraged me to construct the notion that there are children who live out their lives without childhood 鈥� both in the past and in the present. In addition to this I deconstruct the notion of 'universal childhood' and make the following assertions: that in the medieval period childhood as we understand it today may not have existed; that childhood could be said to be a modern invention; that in the postmodern childhood is fast disappearing. I argue that in the wake of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, two contrasting trends emerged regarding children, viz. the notion of child centeredness (among the emerging middle classes), and increasing proletarianization of children (among the lower classes). The 20th century has seen a reduction in child labour due to legislations regarding children, compulsory schooling and the Welfare state. Despite this, today there are millions of children living without childhood. In the 21st century, there are one billion children still living in conditions of poverty resulting from neo-liberal policies and the unequal World order. I further argue that recovering childhood is insidiously connected as much with structural changes as economic ideologies and collective legislations.
KEYWORDS
Social-construction, Childhood, Child-centeredness, Child-labour
Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Mariam John Meynert , "Children without Childhood - Proletarianization of Children and Its Implications," Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 5, No. 8, pp. 590 - 599, 2017. DOI: 10.13189/sa.2017.050803.
(b). APA Format:
Mariam John Meynert (2017). Children without Childhood - Proletarianization of Children and Its Implications. Sociology and Anthropology, 5(8), 590 - 599. DOI: 10.13189/sa.2017.050803.