Contemporary Childhood Capitalism

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Introduction
Capitalist system is essentially devoted to encouraging production and sale of commodities. Robbins (2005, p. 27) observes that, in a similar manner to the other aspects of culture, childhood tends to be socially created and the definition of childhood would thus vary from era to era and from society to society. In the contemporary capitalist society, the role of children takes a prominent position as they continue being pillars of the capitalist consumer society while becoming a primary target of corporates (Robbins, 2005, p. 27). This has prompted the discussions of the state of contemporary childhood to form a critique of capitalism. This paper seeks to provide the relationship that the contemporary child has with the capitalist …show more content…

68). In an effort to explain it, Andersen & Taylor (2008, p. 399) utilizes the link between conflict theory and families to exhibit where childhood meets the capitalist system. In interpreting a family, the conflict theory assumes that family constitutes a system of power relations reinforcing and reflecting the inequalities in the society. Hereby, family assumes a central role in determining the inclination and ability that one develops in utilizing the various cultivation approaches facilitated by the capitalist system (Muller, 2013, p. 33). In maintaining the capitalist system, families are critical in the inequality maintenance across the society as the inequality drives the acquisition of property and social status. Personalities within families are shaped by adapting themselves to the needs of the capitalist system. Therefore, the families socialize their children to be good consumers, obedient and subordinate to authority. As well, families contribute to capitalism in other ways such as socializing the children with the capitalistic tendencies of earning money (Andersen & Taylor, 2008, p.

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