Childhood in Europe: Approaches--Trends--Findings

by Du Bois-Reymond, Manuela; Sunker, Heinz; Kruger, Heinz-Hermann

• ISBN13: 9780820449302
• ISBN10: 082044930X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: Peter Lang Pub Inc

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Childhood Research, the Politics of Childhood, and Children's Lives in Europe: An Introduction	p. 1
About This Book	p. 1
What Can Be Said about European Children and Family Life?	p. 2
How Do European Children Experience Leisure and School?	p. 5
Depedagogization or Repedagogization?	p. 8
Rethinking the Liquidation of Childhood	p. 13
Introduction	p. 13
Children's Work Revisited: Neglected and New Realities	p. 16
Arrangements with an Expanded Consumer Culture	p. 24
Changing Involvements and Activity Systems	p. 30
Conclusion	p. 34
Pre-adolescent Children: An Essay	p. 43
Introduction	p. 43
Pre-adolescent Children: Previously Neglected, Now in High Demand	p. 44
The New Socio-Demography of Childhood--Or, What Becomes Noticeable When One Counts Children	p. 45
Young Citizens in Small Bodies: A Myth and Its Real Consequences	p. 46
Child or Youth? Differences in the Self-Images of the Young and the Way Others Perceive Them	p. 47
Personal Biographies and Personal Lifestyles	p. 49
Time of Education and Culture	p. 50
The Stress of the Parents Has Now Reached the Children	p. 52
It's the Speed Which Counts	p. 52
Life in Stressed Families	p. 53
Bullying at School, or Peers as Stress Factors	p. 54
What Role Do Parents Play in the Selection and Transmission of Cultural Standards to the Next Generation?	p. 54
Negotiation Families	p. 63
Introduction	p. 63
Socio-cultural Change in Western European Societies	p. 65
The Negotiation Household: A Modernized Educational Relationship	p. 68
Educational Relationships between Parents and Children	p. 70
Socio-economic and Socio-cultural Status	p. 73
Family Constellations	p. 73
Degree of Informalization	p. 74
Level of Conflict	p. 75
Family Climate	p. 75
The Perspectives of Parents versus the Perspectives of Children	p. 76
Protoprofessionalizing	p. 77
Parental Values and Model Function of Parents	p. 77
Ideas about the Future and Life Plans	p. 78
Two Case Histories	p. 79
The Poelstra Family: A Traditional Command Household	p. 79
The Heusen-Oostvogel Family: A Negotiation Household	p. 82
Concluding Remarks	p. 85
Power Relations in Children's Lives	p. 91
Introduction	p. 91
Patriarchy for Children?	p. 93
Weber and Patriarchal Authority	p. 96
Wives and Children	p. 97
Children, Wives, Work, and Money	p. 98
The Controls of Age Patriarchy	p. 102
Obedience	p. 102
Space	p. 104
The Body	p. 105
Time	p. 106
A New Kinship System?	p. 109
The Birthday: A Modern Childhood Socialization Ritual	p. 117
Le metier d'enfant: The Profession of Child in French Sociology	p. 117
The Appearance of a Ritual	p. 119
An Ethnographic Methodology	p. 122
The Emergence of New Sociabilities	p. 122
The Rules of the Birthday Party	p. 123
The Invitation Rule	p. 124
The Gift Rule	p. 125
The Return-Gift "Contre-Don" Rule	p. 125
The Decoration Rule	p. 125
The Dress Rule	p. 126
The Food Offering Rule	p. 126
The Pig-Out Rule	p. 126
The Specification and Individualization of the Cake Rule	p. 127
The Sharing of the Cake and the Decorum Rule	p. 127
The Candles on the Birthday Cake Rule	p. 128
The Song Celebration Rule and the Social Circle Rule	p. 128
The Parents' Presence Rule	p. 128
The Organized Games Rule	p. 129
The Sweet Memories Rule	p. 129
The Socialization Process through the Birthday Gift Negotiations	p. 129
The Construction of Child Identity	p. 133
Children's Islands in Space and Time: The Impact of Spatial Differentiation on Children's Ways of Shaping Social Life	p. 139
Introduction	p. 139
Changes in Children's Environments in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century	p. 141
Changes in Children's Action Opportunities	p. 144
Changes in the Social Control of Action	p. 145
Insularization of Places Within the Individual Life Space	p. 146
Particularization of Social Relations	p. 148
Individualization of Shaping Daily Life	p. 149
Children's Various Ways of Shaping Social Life	p. 151
Temporally Based Social Relations	p. 152
Domesticated Neighborhood Life	p. 154
Social Islands	p. 155
Final Comments	p. 156
Children Are Schoolchildren: Relationships between School Culture and Child Culture	p. 161
Introduction	p. 161
The Perception in Society of the Relationship between Generations as an Educational Relationship	p. 163
Schoolchildren and Equal Opportunities in the Acquisition of School Education	p. 165
Schoolchildren and Equal Opportunities in Extracurricular Learning	p. 166
The Strong Influence of School in Children's Extracurricular Lives in the Perception of Children and Parents	p. 170
Far-Reaching Unity of Life and Learning at and outside School	p. 171
Orientation toward School Standards--Leisure Time as an Independent Area	p. 172
A Career Based on School Education	p. 173
School As a Necessary Evil--Leisure Time As a Counterbalance	p. 173
A Comparison of Cases	p. 174
School Educationalists' Interest in Children	p. 175
Summary	p. 177
Property, Power, and Prestige: The Feminization of Childhood	p. 185
Introduction	p. 185
The Argument	p. 187
Legal Rights to Children (the Case of Norway)	p. 189
Controlling Childbearing: A Gender Issue?	p. 192
Children's Families: A Reflection of a Gender Shift	p. 194
Consensual Unions	p. 195
Family Dissolution	p. 197
Parenting After Dissolution	p. 198
Changes in Fatherhood: Increased Togetherness and Separateness	p. 201
Welfare and Gender Policies	p. 203
A European View	p. 205
Conclusion	p. 206
Childhood as a Social Phenomenon Revisited	p. 215
Introduction	p. 215
Focused Research Areas	p. 218
Nine Theses about Childhood as a Social Phenomenon	p. 223
Childhood Is a Particular and Distinct Form of Any Society's Social Structure	p. 223
Childhood Is, Sociologically Speaking, not a Transient Phase but a Permanent Social Category	p. 224
The Idea of the Child as Such is Problematic, while Childhood Is an Historical and Intercultural Category	p. 225
Childhood is an Integral Part of Society and Its Division of Labor	p. 225
Children Are Themselves Co-constructors of Childhood and Society	p. 226
Childhood Is in Principle Exposed to the Same Societal Forces as Adulthood (e.g., Economically and Institutionally), Although in a Particular Way	p. 227
Children's Stipulated Dependency Has Consequences for Children's Invisibility in History and Social Descriptions, as Well as for Their Entitlements to Welfare Provisions	p. 229
The Ideology of the Family, not Parents, constitutes a Barrier against Children's Interests and Welfare	p. 230
Childhood Is a Classic Minority Category, Which Is Subject to Both Marginalizing and Paternalizing Tendencies	p. 232
Recent Trends	p. 232
A Methodology for Making Children Count	p. 243
Foreword	p. 243
On the Sociography of Childhood	p. 244
Toward a Sociography of Childhood	p. 246
Some Methodological Considerations	p. 247
The Social Demography of Childhood	p. 249
Introductory Remarks	p. 249
Children, Adults, and the Elderly	p. 251
Children and Families	p. 255
Poor People, Poor Families and Poor Children	p. 258
Childhood and Fertility	p. 263
Concluding Remarks	p. 264
Childhood in Poland	p. 273
Discovering the Child and Childhood	p. 273
The Social Characteristics of Childhood	p. 275
Childhood in the School	p. 280
Culture in Childhood	p. 284
Childhood in Relationship to the Market and Money	p. 287
Children of the Middle Class	p. 290
Instead of a Conclusion	p. 292
Childhood Research, the Politics of Childhood, and Children's Lives in Germany	p. 299
Introduction	p. 299
Elements of Social Analysis	p. 301
Childhood	p. 304
Children's Lives and Rights	p. 306
Perspectives	p. 308
About the Authors	p. 323
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