How Social, Historical and Spatial Constructions of Childhood free essay sample

Examine how social, historical and spatial constructions of childhood and or youth inform the design, practices and values of a selected institution of childhood or young people. Childhood is not a biological state, unlike infancy (Postman) it is a construction placed upon a group of humans by society (James and Prout). Differing societies have different views of what a child is and should be. The ideas surrounding children and childhood not only differ within different societies there are also historical differences in the constructs of children (Postman) as if we look throughout history it is suggested that children are a modern day construct (Postman). Aries (1962) suggests that even as early as the late seventeeth century, when childhood seemed to appear there was not a universal experience for all individuals who were of childhood age (Aries 1962). The practice of recognising children was a ‘social and economic construct, first recognised by the middle and upper classes’ (Aries 1962). We will write a custom essay sample on How Social, Historical and Spatial Constructions of Childhood or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This thought is also adopted by Matthews and Limb (date) when discussing children in modern times, they suggest that although Valentine (date) suggests that children are innocent, vulnerable and dependant on both their parents and the state in order for them to engage in a happy carefree time with lack of responsibility (valentine), this is not the case for all children (Matthews and Limb). According to Matthews and Limb there are many factors that inhibit the possibility of a universal experience of childhood, including; poverty, ill health, class and gender to name but a few (Matthews and Limb). Children and childhood are loosely used terms in which Matthews and Limb (date) suggest are umbrella concepts that are used to group together a sub culture within society (Matthews and Limb). They go on to suggest that grouping together this group and labelling them as children is similar to concept of grouping together disabled people within society, as they are also considered to be as inferior to a fully abled adult (Matthews and Limb). This concept that childhood is set aside from society in the same way as having a disability is challenged by Valentine as they suggest that lthough children are set aside from the adult world this is temporary (Valentine) unlike having a disability. Not only do adults place historical and societal constructs onto children there is also the process of projecting spatial constructions onto them aswell. Soja (date) refers to how we place spatiality constructions, he suggests that in order to understand any society, culture or any group of people historically and socially as this gives the best informative knowledge of the group (Soja). As mentioned previously this has been done since the twentieth century when Aries looked at when childhood, as a concept had emerged (Aries 1962). However in recent years it has been suggested that using this dialectic in order to understand a community is not enough (Soja) and that there has to be a third notion (Soja). Soja suggests that although historical and social imaginations of a community give a good insight to what a society is this dialectic is not enough when you want to have a full understanding of how a community behave (Soja). He suggests that the spaces in which people occupy (spatiality) should be adopted with the same importance and a trialectic approach should be adopted (Soja). Studying one aspect of the trialectic is no more insightful than another and all should be treated as equal when trying to gain knowledge (Soja). It is only when ‘the three terms and the complex relationships between them [are] studied together as fundamental and interwined knowledge sources’(Soja date:262) can a researcher fully understand what the world or a community is all about. You have to have knowledge about the community historically and socially but just as important is knowing and understanding what it is like to live in the space in order to understand (Soja). Soja takes this a step further when he suggests that there should be another trialectic within spaciallity (Soja). When looking within spaciallity you should also look to see in which way the space has been When we look at the immaturity that we place upon children this is links to biological facts of life (James and Prout), however the way in which these immaturities are understood is down to cultural and societal views.