Sociology of Childhood and Work - Essay Example

Sociology of Childhood and Work Student’s Name Institution Sociology of Childhood and Work Even though the childhood sociology is not a new concept, in the last decade there has been a remarkable surge in the sociological attention and interest in this area (Wyness, 2011). What has been more noticeable is the determination of making childhood to be a major concern instead of seeing it as being submerged under general contents such as schooling or family that has for a long time been the trend for studies (Sommer, Pramling & Hundeide, 2010). An increase in such a view of child can be attributed to a systematic move of re-democratization of modern society and the disassembling of all the stratification hidden forms. Theoretical Framework Social constructionism Social constructionism is a new approach used to understand childhood (Wyness, 2011). This perspective growth complimented the growing relativism and liberalism, which greatly influenced the academics in 1960s when the common philosophical paradigm moved idealism that is introduced by Heideder and Huseel works from the dogmatic materialism (Sommer, Pramling & Hundeide, 2010). The theory holds that the knowledge of the child and its life normally depends on the consciousness predispositions that are constructed in relation to political, social, oral, and historical context. The objective of the theory is going back to a particular phenomenon in the consciousness and cause how such is built up (Wyness, 2011). Therefore, in an idealist word, which is socially constructed, there exist no essential constraints or forms. Childhood never exists in identifiable and finite form (Sommer, Pramling & Hundeide, 2010). Therefore, social socio-constructionism stresses the plurality issue, different from a model that recommends unitary form. In short, the approach is hermeneutic and erodes conventional standards of truth and judgment. The children who lie within this approach can be seen as an ideal type because the importance of social constructionism is fund in its purpose in the study of childhood. It appears that there is near universal agreement that there exist important differences between children and adults (Sommer, Pramling & Hundeide, 2010). In the present example, many agree that children are physically and psychologically immature when they are compared to the adults. Such is the reason children are always dependent on adults for different biological and emotional needs (Paula, 2013). They need a lengthy socialization process that takes several years; different from adults, children are never competent to better run their lives, and they are not he responsible for most of their actions. However, even though there is some agreement on this, what many mean by the term childhood and that the position occupied by children is not static; but varies across the cultures, places, and times (Sommer, Pramling & Hundeide, 2010). There exists a considerable variation where people in various societies think about children place in society, about children should do at a particular age, about the age they are regarded as adults and about the method to be used to be socialized (Gasson & Linsell, 2011). Because of this, some sociologists claim that childhood is constructed socially, which means that childhood is a thing created and defined by society. It appears that the ideas of childhood are shaped by numerous factors such as cultural background, nationality, gender, religion, and ethnicity (Sommer, Pramling & Hundeide, 2010). The experiences of the children are not determined always by the social constructions, but the social constructions influence them because social framework determines possibilities, expectations, and limits of what should be done (Gasson & Linsell, 2011). Childhood Innocence The notion of innocence can be defined as children’s lack of knowledge, purity, simplicity, and unspoiled by the mundane affairs this incompetence is normally taken as a renewal of the promise by the children (Wyness, 2011). Innocence has always been attributed to the childhood and children—by the adults— but social function and content of this glorifying assessment, reveal considerable different context and time and the valuation has never been unanimous among different contemporaries The ascription of the childhood innocence impacts important assumptions that concern human kind the relation of human beings to God (Sommer, Pramling & Hundeide, 2010). At times, theological thinking made it unavoidable to claim that children will not suffer inn hell, in particular when they are baptized. Innocence can also be attributed to include the respect of the ways of children to learn or act on their own and their views respected. Being and becoming In simple terms, being a child is perceived as an actor in their own rights who are constructing own childhood and have experiences and views about being a child (Sommer, Pramling & Hundeide, 2010). The becoming child is seen as an adult in making who lacks universal features and skills of the adult they will be (Gasson & Linsell, 2011). As a result, seeing a child as a human being or a becoming human appears to involve some conflicting approaches to what really it means to be a child. There exist two major issues with the discourses of becoming a child. Firstly, it is always future oriented explicitly (Sommer, Pramling & Hundeide, 2010). Such necessarily places the significance on what the child will be instead of which child is. The child is normally seen s future adults instead of a young human being in their own right (Gasson & Linsell, 2011). Such an assumption can be problematic since temporal focus forces us to dismiss or neglect the present daily realities of being a child nonetheless, how something is conceptualized in future includes how it is conceptualized in present (Gasson & Linsell, 2011). Moreover, even though our future anticipation can influence how people conceptualize a thing in the present, anticipations might be totally wrong. Secondly, is the competency issues raised called that claims that adults are competent, but children are incompetent (Sommer, Pramling & Hundeide, 2010). From a perspective of becoming, the child is perceived as progressing from vulnerability state to sophistication state, from lack of skills to abilities possession. Such a perspective implies that competency is a thing that is acquired when one is close to becoming an adult and that competency is an adult characteristic necessarily (Gasson & Linsell, 2011). This may be troublesome to children who can be competent at nothing and adults who are competent at everything. Impact of sociological theories on Work Child Exploitation In most countries, children form a critical part of the family economic structure and work while they are under their parent's control working in the suitable conditions (Jayaraj & Subramanian, 2007). Nonetheless, they are vulnerable to acts of violence, abuse, and rights violation because adults exploit their innocence. Most children are exploited in the cotton fields, stone quarries mines, and markets, and they are also working as domestic workers (Jenkins, 1998). Actually, it is clear that in most communities, children have demonstrated that they are in a position to partake in the local discussion of work since they are future adults according to the theory of being and becoming (Kate, 2010). They are totally aware that some of the work they are doing is harming them, but they are compelled to come up with decisions in constrained environment (Gasson & Linsell, 2011). They are neither reckless truants nor helpless victims since they clearly understand the decisions implications and can articulate their perspectives clearly. In India, for example, there is a unique way in which people are divided into the social groups—the caste system. These are levels into what a person can be born: that is, the Brahmins or priests who have the highest caste achievement. There are Kshatriya’s who are the warriors and rulers of India, thirdly, there are artisans, merchants, and farmers who are the ones entrusted with trade and care of agriculture(Jenkins, 1998). The laborers are at the lower level of caste. Also, there are the untouchables who are the polluted laborers. Once a person in born not any of such societies, he or she has to do what the society requires him/her to do. Child exploitation occurs in the lower levels of the caste system. For instance, most child laborers are coming from the untouchables. Child labor vs. Child Work Some proponents argue that the rights of children are useless since child labor promotes the claim that children have rights of disobeying their parents and they do as they wish (Jayaraj & Subramanian, 2007). However, children have rights to freedom from exploitation and forced labor. In fighting to eliminate child labor forms, it is critical to understand that not every tsk done by kids is child labor (Kate, 2010). In simpler terms, child labor can be defined as work that is depriving kids of their childhood, dignity and potential and it is harmful to physical and mental development. This is work, which is morally, physically, mentally, or physically harmful and hazardous to children as it denies them a chance of attending school or leaving school prematurely (Dargin, 2013). This forces them to try to both attend school and do excessively heavy and long work that in most cases violates the minimum age laws in many countries. In most extreme cases, child labor entails debt bandage, child slavery, child trafficking, children detached from their families, children exposed to illness and hazards, or the children who are left to look for their own food on streets. Child work, on the other hand, is defined as the positive participation of children in economic activity that is detrimental to their physical and mental development (Amanda, 2009). On contrary, child work is beneficial as it strengthens and encourages children to develop. It does allow normal schooling and never impedes the children from resting or doing leisure activities (Jayaraj & Subramanian, 2007). Such entails activities like helping parents, assisting family business, earning pocket money and others. Such contributes to their development and family’s welfare, provides them with skills and experience, and helps them to be productive in their adult life. Child work is concerned with childhood innocence where by the parents are forced to start teaching the kids different tasks and make them competent. The Global North and the Global South There are two countries in the world: the industrialized and the developing countries. The global north mostly includes the Western Europe, Canada, Australia, United States, parts of Asia and New Zealand, , which have similar cultural and economic characteristics of the northern nations (Holland, 2009). The global south consists of Africa, developing Asia and Latin America. In the global south, life is a struggle as poverty robs people’s confidence, ambition, limits their imagination, and steals their ride. Their major exports are confined largely to the inexpensive primary products, which includes foodstuff—such as tea, coffee, and cocoa—minerals, timber, and hides (Amanda, 2009). Since they consume almost everything they produce, their economy is a substance one, and their possibility of eradicating child labor is dim. The children in Global South are socially constructed to work and gate wages so that they can evade extreme suffering. Even though the children welfare was understood as a major factor behind the many abuse stories in the West African industry, such was undermined by failing to understand the rights of children holistically. All the intentions should be in the best interest of the children or their situation at work should be known fully to be protecting the kid's interests. The stakeholders have to treat the issue with a lot of caution (Amanda, 2009). A sector has stagnant technology increasing unskilled workers demand in poverty circle. Salaried children are mostly trapped in the vicious cycle (Gasson & Linsell, 2011). Most of these children have never been to school and earn subsistence wages because child labor, which means that the economic circumstances have forced them into the child labor (Jayaraj & Subramanian, 2007). The children who are from this drier parts or underdeveloped regions (where life is extremely difficult), they are socially constricted to work from their tender ages so that they can meet their ends and become future responsible men and women. Recommendations Despite the different theories that determine the involvement of children in work, there is need for some changes to be adopted on this issue. As a matter of fact, there exist many types of employment that causes harm to the children, how employment is normally organized and the relationships between employers and children. Some works such as working on commercial vegetable firms can be harmful. It is therefore important the state to ensure that the work is in the children’s best interests, the national administration must draft the supervisory legislation and draw on the communities to draft and define the term dangerous work (Holland, 2009). Parents and children have a clear understanding of how damaging various types are. Moreover, basing regulations and prohibitions around such understandings will make sure that prohibitions are targeted appropriately (Jayaraj & Subramanian, 2007). Communities are probably to agree with these limits and the employers will implement them. The federal administration will have to set guidelines for the work features, which should be considered by the communities when they are defining harmful work. Before deciding to legislate on the children work, it is critical to understand the practical problems that come with the imposition of a ban on the work of children when the social norms are permitting children to work, and the regime has constrained capacity (Holland, 2009). The government will unlikely succeed to implement a ban meaning that children will always work. The government will also lose the opportunity of regulating the children’s work. Most work that is presently considered harmful can be changed by the regulation is that the harm can be mitigated which renders the prohibition unnecessary (Kate, 2010). Regulations might need vegetable farms to structure the pay so that children can work a half day. This will give them regular breaks, and dispute resolution structures will be set up, or the flower farms will need to have protective gear. Another way of protecting the kids from harmful work should be by the use of the regulatory approach. There is a need for prohibition of harmful work since affects the kids negatively (Holland, 2009). The children always use their wages for buying such materials and looks after their wellbeing. The work to the children is seen as a way to overcome obstacles (Kate, 2010). In research about Ethiopia, it is clear that work normally teaches necessary skills and facilitates the kids to effectively contribute to their family and this is part of becoming a better child. Concussions Undeniably, there is a lack of coherent assessment of various types of tasks at the level of community that prioritizes the best interests of the children. The local employers only set the available restrictions ad hoc, and all of them have different interest—none of them prioritizes the children’s interests. Moreover, it is clear that the theoretical stance discussed should be analyzed in relation to the children’s human rights. For instance, in the context of education, the children rights should involve more than respect for the children. Viewing a child who holds rights as dependent and immature agent in the sociopolitical environment should give us an opportunity to understand the role of education, and good care in helping then child grow as a human rights holder. References Holland .A (2009) Something Like Slavery? Queensland's Aboriginal Child Workers, 1842–1945., Australian Historical Studies, 40:3, 387-388, DOI:10.1080/10314610903089387 Amanda B., (2009),"Child labour and cocoa: whose voices prevail?", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 29 Iss 3/4 pp. 141 – 151 Jayaraj D. & Subramanian S. (2007). Out of School and (Probably) in Work: Child Labour and Capability Deprivation in India Journal of South Asian Development 2:2 (2007): 177–226. DOI: 10.1177/097317410700200202 Paula S., (2013). The History of Childhood in the Western World. London: Routledge, 2013. Dargin, J. (2013). The rise of the global south: Philosophical, geopolitical and economic trends of the 21st century. Jenkins, H. (1998). The children's culture reader. New York: New York University Press. Kate O. (2010), In The Child’s Best Interests? Legislation On Children’s Work In Ethiopia journal of International Development v. 22, 1102–1114 (2010) DOI: 10.1002/jid.1749 Gasson. R. & Linsell C. (2011),Young workers: A New Zealand perspective International Journalof Children'sRights 19 (2011) 641-659 Sommer, D., Pramling, S. I., & Hundeide, K. (2010). Child perspectives and children's perspectives in theory and practice. Dordrecht: Springer. Wyness, M. (2011). Childhood and Society. Palgrave Macmillan. Read More