Norman Gabriel - The Sociology of Early Childhood

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The Sociology of Early Childhood

Critical Perspectives

The Sociology of Early Childhood

Critical Perspectives

• Norman Gabriel

SAGE Publications Ltd

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Norman Gabriel 2017

First published 2017

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016952261

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-4462-7298-5

ISBN 978-1-4462-7299-2 (pbk)

Editor: Natalie Aguilera

Assistant editor: Delayna Spencer

Production editor: Katherine Haw

Copyeditor: Rosemary Campbell

Proofreader: Rebecca Storr

Indexer: Elizabeth Ball

Marketing manager: Sally Ransom

Cover design: Tristan Tutak

Typeset by: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India

Printed in the UK

About the Author

Norman Gabrielis a sociologist teaching Early Childhood Studies at Plymouth University. Inspired by Norbert Elias, his research interests are in relational sociology and the sociology of early childhood. With Professor Stephen Mennell he co-edited, Norbert Elias and Figurational Research: Processual Thinking in Sociology (2011), a monograph for The Sociological Review series. He is currently working on a book on Norbert Eliass political sociology (co-authored with Professor Lars Bo Kaspersen).

Acknowledgements

This book is the culmination of a number of years of teaching and researching in Early Childhood Studies. The initial idea came from a conversation with Jenny Willan, a former colleague who suggested that there was a gap in the sociological literature exploring the lives of young children. Many thanks to Chris Rojek who encouraged me to develop a proposal that would focus on the sociology of early childhood.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Stephen Mennell for his continuous and generous support his introductory book to Norbert Elias inspired me. I hope readers will become aware of the deep gratitude I owe to Eliass radical sociological thinking and its application to early childhood. My good friend Lars Bo Kaspersen also gave me excellent advice and wise counsel when I most needed it a big thank you for all the great times in Copenhagen.

Thanks to Gina my beautiful love for keeping me on firm foundations during the writing process and to our two wonderful sons, Joseph, for your strong commitment and dedication to keeping alive our traditions and Jacob, long may you continue to challenge me in our discussions. And to Mum and Dad for bringing me up with deep trust and security may their memory always be a source of inspiration for future generations.

Introduction

Introduction

In this book we will develop a relational sociology of early childhood by focusing on the earliest experiences of young children. At birth, babies are born in total dependency on their mother or carers and only gradually do they develop attachments to other people around them fathers, siblings, grandparents, other relatives and friends, teachers or classmates. Young children are born into and grow up in interdependent relationships that change but are historically structured in different societies. In early childhood, this network is relatively small and the balance is tilted towards dependency on older adults. The lives of young children should therefore be seen as intersections in a network that slowly form part of a wider figuration of relationships in society.

As they grow up they look forward to becoming adults, making connections across generations. When he was seven years of age my younger son Jacob made a subtle distinction about his Grandad, my father-in-law, and my Dad, his Grandpa, Granddad, youre old but grandpa is an antique. Later as adults we look back at our youngest years, trying to establish some formative influences in our earliest experiences. Richard Feynman (1988: 16), one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century, talked about the wonderful influence of his father, the way he encouraged him to explore some of the deep connections behind the principles of science:

Ive been caught, so to speak like someone who was given something wonderful when he was a child, and hes always looking for it again. Im always looking, like a child, for the wonders Im going to find maybe not every time, but every once in a while.

This chapter will introduce you to why the study of young children has become such an important area for investigation, discussing some of the key theoretical concepts that can be used to understand their early lives in contemporary society. I will mainly focus on the experiences of young children growing up in the United Kingdom today, though relevant comparisons will be made with young children in other countries to emphasise some of the universal features that are common to their experiences and development.

Early Childhood

Early childhood is a complex field with many varied terms, including early years, early childhood development, early care, early care and education, and early childhood education and care. While there are no clear definitions, the terms early childhood and early years are among the two most popular internationally and are often used interchangeably by researchers. Therefore, the two terms early childhood and early years will be used in this book. There is also some controversy regarding the age span of children that should be included in early childhood, with most using the term to refer to young children from birth to age eight. Despite the contested nature of the ages to be included in early childhood, the vast majority of international researchers consider early childhood or the early years as embracing birth to age eight years (Farrell et al., 2015).

The early years sector in the UK can be characterised as a mixed economy of provision marked by variation in quality, poor qualification levels, low pay and low status. This low status of the early childhood worker, rooted in the relationship between childcare and mothering, can easily become relegated to womens work. As a highly gendered employment sector strongly connected with the affective realms of caring and nurturance, women who work in this sector have been perceived to lack professionalism (see Dahlberg et al., 1999).

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