Sociology of Childhood

In Uncovering Childhood, Peter Fuller (1979) traces the way that children's imagery, in fact their being, has been co-modified by adults and capitalistic socioeconomic systems. Primarily viewing children as "young adults," Fuller (1979, p. 234) argues that childhood is removed from children in ways that undermine a potential for socialism and more, "There are good grounds for concluding that even if it were possible to eradicate childhood altogether for example a sustained assault upon the biological level itself the attempt might also eradicate the potentiality for socialism, and much else besides."

In the Victorian era, the child was often viewed as a "miniature adult," and when children from rural and poor classes were depicted it was often from the perspective of the upper-classes. Such images of children are often exploitative, an exploitation that Fuller (1979, p. 232) argues still occurs in contemporary images of children, "The child is depicted as a miniature consumer, or the child's image is used with no thought of the child's own experience, as a narcissistic enticement of adults." Such images portend a connection between the child and socioeconomics, one that Fuller (1979) argues is pure fabrication since children are as close to nature and the biological and as far removed from the socioeconomic as it gets during childhood. Because of this Fuller (1979, p. 233) argues children "�cannot be equalized by social exchange." In othe

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nity life, or perhaps it is the postmodern childhood that is the aberration. It is still too early to tell." Response and Connections The work of Fuller and Calvert demonstrates the separate worlds of childhood and adulthood. They also illustrate how social institutions, from the media and church to social classes and the arts, impact the perspective of childhood, children, normalization processes and the parenting process. For example, Calvert (1998, p. 248) argues that during the Nineteenth-century, the preoccupation with romanticism in American society influenced perceptions of childhood, "Childhood fit nicely into this romantic pattern: It was something bright and fleeting to be cherished while it lasted." Fuller also maintains that different social phenomena were responsible for different images of children throughout history. For example, though the child is furthest removed from socioeconomic systems of existence and closest to the biological and natural state of human-beings, images of children in many eras have portrayed children as nothing more than "miniature adults," (Fuller, 1979, p. 218). Fuller (1979) argues that children were portrayed as belonging to the bourgeoisie, including being dressed, coiffed, and po

Category: Psychology - S