Social Construction of Child and Childhood Social construction of children and children begins with a general overview of social constructivism which provides a clearer understanding of children and childhood in the social world. The concept of social construction is defined not in the explanation but in various fields, and there are many ideas.
Assess the sociological explanation that childhood is a social construction.Childhood is the time of a person’s life when they are a child.Childhood is said to be socially constructed, meaning that it has not been influenced by nature but has been shaped by the quality of family life and the culture within society.
Discuss the view that childhood is a Social Construction? The social construction of childhood means that childhood is not natural because it is a concept that has different meanings in different societies. Sociologists agree that children are biologically different to adults but every society gives these biological differences different meanings.
For example, laws are now set in place to restrict what children watch and observe this was non-existent during earlier times. It can then be argued that childhood is a social construction. In conclusion, this essay has argued that the ideas about childhood have changed over the centuries due to development of the understanding of it.
The social construction of childhood is the understanding that childhood is not a natural process, instead it emerges from social, historical and cultural practices, (Norozi and Moen, 2016). Furthermore, the social studies of childhood include the idea that children are social actors in their own right and are actively involved in the construction of their own lives (Prout and James, 1990).
Age is an important aspect of stratification which has a crucial bearing on our status and identity since it determines whether and what sort of employment we can gain, whether we can marry, as well as things such as the sort of leisure activities we can join in, whether we can go into pubs and clubs, and the sorts of films we can watch.
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