Material Political Ideologies and Their Influence - Essay Example

POLICY INTO PRACTICE Introduction This essay aims to demonstrate critical awareness and understanding of material political ideologies and their influence on the development and implementation of social policy in relation to children and childhood. It shall likewise analyse and evaluate an aspect of social policy related to children and childhood. It shall criticize an impact of an aspect of policy related to such topic. In addressing these concerns, this paper looks through relevant political ideologies influencing the development and implementation of social policy in regard to children's condition. Relevant policies on the protection of the rights and welfare of children abound. The UN Declaration of Human Rights, through its provision states, "Every child should have access to free elementary education, and must have full development of human personality." Key policy goals arising to these include social cohesion, human development, human capital, equality of opportunity, social mobility, and equality of outcome. Education is the focus of this study in which policy into practice is examined. Political Ideologies that Shape the Development and Implementation of Social Policy on Children It is important to point out that the emergence of democracy as a political ideology paved way to the emergence of several economic and marketing strategies aiming to increase profitability even in the realm of education, children's services, products, toys, and the like, exposing children to recurring references to brands. Since education is also entered ito by commercialism, acquisition of knowledge and skills seems secondary to schools' profit accumulation. There is likewise the so- called non-broadcast media, in which public services are increasingly being utilised as advertising spaces. Children or their parents are made to buy certain products through marketing messages by exploiting children's emotional vulnerabilities and by using the notion of 'being cool' to sell (Williams, 2007, p. 4). The correlation between commercialisation and education is an important emphasis in this paper. Hence, it may be inferred that children are turned into customers in capitalistic environment where they live, and even the kind of education they receive is turned into a business (Kohn and Shannon, 2002). It is also said that schools are becoming highly commercialized, allowing corporate encroachments in their domains in which commercialized activities are already commonplace (Molnar and Reaves, 2001). There is said to be a commercialization of childhood with marketing strategies wherein children are bombarded with images of what they should own and how they are supposed to look, making them struggle to keep up. With this setting, children tend to suffer from stress, anxiety, poorer relationships with others, and an increasing lower satisfaction about themselves (Williams, 2007, p. 5). There is said to be record levels of mental health among children, manifested by symptoms of conduct disorders such as bullying as well as eating and emotional disorders (Williams, 2007; Kaltiala, et al., 2002). These are effects of commercialization intended by businesses for children. It must be noted that in terms of viewing children and childhood in the point of view of the Marxist ideology, there is currently a child-oriented market that lays roots in every aspect of children's lives in the UK, affecting how children learn, eat, and play. Advertisements and marketing strategies and messages play a big role in shaping the way children view themselves and their environment (Sarup, 1982). With a commercialized education (Kohn and Shannon, 2002; Molnar and Reaves, 2001), this is carried on even in school. The democratic ideology is utilised in order to maximise capitalist profits through products and services intended for children (Wittman, 1983). Commercialism gave a way for the disappearance of the boundaries between the child and the adult worlds, seen in the manner wherein lacy underwear are sold to little girls and toys like 'date night accessories' are marketed to little boys (Williams, 2007). The sexualisation and commercialization of childhood, especially for girls, are made through clothes, toys, and music, carried out through television, magazines, and the internet. There is also a great influence of supermarkets on inferring on children's education in terms of asking parents to collect 250,000 worth of vouchers for a computer that costs 1,000. Reports also indicate 300 million marketing costs entailed by brands on targeting classroom (Williams, 2007). In this way, childhood is constructed as a commercialized stage with products and items at the center of the lives of children, with parents conforming to the persuasive appeals of advertisements. They are disoriented from the path that they should trail, and even their acquisition of education points out to being business-oriented. The Concept of Social Justice as an Ideology The concept of social justice is proved to influence the direction of children's policy in Britain, wherein a social investment approach is utilised in furthering their well-being and recognition as child-citizen members of society. Social justice as a construct was conceived out of the emergence of the concept of human rights and freedom. This concept as an ideology has transpired to a broader social justice agenda, which later trailed a gendered agenda, acknowledging the links between women and children's well-being and recognizes gender equality between the sexes. It may be inferred that this gendered policy accounts for the emergence of related policies aiming to protect not only women but also children. Wiegers (2002, in Lister, 2006) states that making women's and children's agendas a separate claim based on fairness and social justice is important. The social democracy construct has given way to the notion of widening participation, which is a thriving concept in democratic processes, activities, and pursuits. Greenbank (2006) says that generally, the British government's widening participation policy has progressed in an overly bureaucratic system of control, encompassing issues of ethnicity, gender, age, and disability. The emergence of this concept paved the way for greater participation, eliminating what used to be known as social barriers. The Policy on Investment in Children: Children Act 1989 There are views regarding children as main human capital rather than direct provision of economic maintenance (Giddens, 1998, in Williams, 2007). This is the policy on investment in children. The Brown government developed a theme of investing in children as the country's future, indicating that the future economy will be supported by this theme. This direction on regarding children as a strategic significance is focused on making its citizens to respond to global economic change in order to enhance competitiveness in the knowledge economy. The government's Strategic Unit states that to be ready for the future is the government's first strategic priority. To ensure that people possess the skills and qualities for future jobs, lives, and citizenship, Children Act 1989 is key to the achievement of this strategy (Williams, 2007). This is done through education of children. However, the kind of education that children receive, as already pointed out earlier is one that in which profitability and commercialism thrive. The Children Act 1989 is clearly towards future-orientation of the social investment state, directed at equality life-long opportunity to replace the traditional social democratic concern on equality. The Children Act 1989 clearly puts the children at the center of social investment strategy and social policymaking through these stances (Hendrick, 2005, in Williams, 2007. However, social constructs such as commercialism and profit-orientation in education must be fairly addressed. It is clear that such policy focuses on treating children as investment that involves cash support and services. The cash support may be seen in the government's pursuit of increasing the universal child benefit, improving support for children in low-income families and social assistance payments for children, and introducing child trust fund (Sherraden, 2002, in Williams, 2004). Children have a common experience of homelessness, poor housing, mental; health problems, substance misuse, life crises, and lack of education, a scenario that poses total opposites with the British government's policy on investment on children. Statistics show that over one million children live in bad housing in Britain; over 1 million houses are unfit to live in; and more than 500,000 families live in overcrowded housing. The government's emphasis on Children Act 1989 is sought to help alter the condition of children, their living conditions, and their lack of a good future. Evaluation of the Impact of Social Policy in Relation to Children It may be inferred that the state policy on children as main human capital in the social investment state gave way to the emphasis on the importance of services to welfare. The Children Act 1989 may be seen in the government's focus on children's education, early years provision, and childcare. The childcare strategy likewise impacted an emphasis on child development and removing obstacles to paid work for parents, especially mothers (Callender, 2002). Indirect impact is also seen through improvements in paid maternity leave provision, paternity leave, and unpaid parental leave. It may also be pointed out that the children strategy policy allows for the simplification of the educational system, particularly on hardship support. There is also a support provision for students who came from less well-off backgrounds (Callender, 2002). The Children Act 1989 is in synergy with the "welfare to work strategy" of the government whose main task is to encourage the participation of lone parents in the labour market with a target of 70 per cent employment rate by 2010. This stance by the Labour government is due to acknowledging childcare as an important contributing factor in the labour market behaviour of single parents (Bell, et al., 2005). The policy may then be evaluated as integrative, in which it is essential to alter or improve certain aspects of existing policies in order to suit to its objectives. The social investment approach to child welfare due to the Children Act 1989 may be evaluated as one within a framework of agenda for children. There is said to be a discursive centering of the child, whereby several people are advancing more holistic frameworks for the promotion of social justice and equality for children than the government. Further, concerned citizens view children as moral subjects rather than mere objects of policy intervention, which the British government is said to assume (Williams and Roseneil, 2004, in Lister, 2006). There is a need for more than a futurist and instrumentalist social investment approach in dealing with the children's well being. Aside from this, there is also a call to recognise them as child-citizen members of the British society so as to view them as a special sector that needs mandatory support and assistance. The social democratic construct allows the introduction of children's rights, freedom, and protection, contributing chiefly to how policies on children are shaped. Conclusion In conclusion, policies related to children and childhood are products of political ideologies, which direct the shaping of such policies. Notions of democracy have paved way to the introduction of the market system in the economy, expanding the business realm to the point of commercialisation of children and childhood. The social democratic construct allows the introduction of children's rights, freedom, and protection, which chiefly contributed to how policies on children are shaped The Children Act 1989 views children as the hope and builders of the future to which the government must invest in. This accounts to the introduction of relevant policies aiming to improve the condition of children, such as the government's pursuit in increasing the universal child benefit, improving support for children in low-income families and social assistance payments for children, and introducing a policy on child trust fund. These are products of the Children Act 1989, grounded on seeing children as main human capital in the British society. The policy may be evaluated as one that leads to the furtherance of other related policies, such as improvement of the condition of lone parents through improved employment privileges. The children's policy is said to be discursive in a way that social justice advocates gear for a more radical and holistic promotion of equality and social justice than does the government. They likewise tend to view children as moral subjects rather than merely viewing them as objects of policy intervention, which the British government appears to do. Bibliography: 1. Bell, A., Finch, N., La Valle, I., Sainsbury, R., and Skinner, C. (2005) A question of balance: lone parents, childcare, and work, Research Report No. 230, Department for Work and Pensions. 2. Callender, C. (2002) The costs of widening participation: Contradictions in New Labour's student funding policies, Social Policy and Society, Vol. 1 (2), pp. 93-94. 3. Giddens, A. (1998) the third way: The renewal of social democracy, Cambridge: Polity. 4. Greenbank, P. (2006) The evolution of government policy on widening participation, Higher Education Quarterly, Vol. 60 (2) pp. 141-166. 5. Hendrick, H. (2005) Identifying and Exploring Concepts and Approaches, pp. 51-64 in H. Hendrick (ed.) Child welfare and social policy: and essential reader. Bristol: Policy Press. 6. Kaltiala, R., Rimpela, M., Rantanen P., and Rimpela A. (2002) Bullying at school: an indicator of adolescents at risk for mental disorders, Journal of Adolescence, Vol. 23 (6) p. 661-674. 7. Kohn, A. and Shannon, P. (2002) Education, Inc.: turning learning into business. Revised Edition. Heinemann. 8. Lister, R. (2006) Children (but not women) first: New labour, child welfare and gender, Critical Social Policy, Vol. 26. 9. Molnar, A. and Reaves, J. (2001) What should we teach Buy me! Buy me! Educational Leadership, Vol. 59 (2), October. 10. Sarup, M. 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