FH11 Social Construction Of Childhood

How has the social construction of children changed over time? 

Social construction in relation to the children, is a theory that provides understanding about how childhood and the knowledge about childhood is constructed, who constructs such knowledge and what purpose such knowledge would serve. This theory of childhood is based on different conceptions among varying cultures, societies as well as different point of time in history.

There has been significant change in the social construction since last few centuries. According to various historians, the concept of childhood as a different phase of life was not developed till 16^th centuries (Norozi & Moen, 2016). The change in the perceptions about the childhood is often called as ‘break with tradition’. Children were considered as the independent individuals and as the adults at earlier age. They were expected to imitate the mannerisms of the adults. In between the 10^th century and 13^th century, there was no existence of the concept of childhood. Until 19^th century, child labour was a common occurrence as they were expected to start working and earning at the earliest age. The emotional connection between the children and adults was quite detached.

In the recent centuries, children are considered as totally different to the adults in the society. Particularly in the western societies children are treated as the innocent and vulnerable individuals where need to be protected at every cost (James & Prout, 2015). Adults in today’s times are regarded as the custodians of children and children are not seen as the economic assets for the families. This change in the social construction about childhood has resulted in introduction of various laws to safeguard the rights of children and to protect their well-being.

Recently we visited a restaurant and found that the government officials were sent over there to investigate about the matters of child labour at such organisations. The investigators found that there were employees working in the restaurant who were aged below 14 years and on the ground of this fact, the restaurant owner was penalised heavily and was also imprisoned for the violation of child-labour acts of the country.

References:

James, A. and Prout, A., 2015. A new paradigm for the sociology of childhood?: Provenance, promise and problems. In Constructing and reconstructing childhood (pp. 6-28). Routledge.

Norozi, S.A. and Moen, T., 2016. Childhood as a social construction. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 6(2), p.75.