Adultization and blurring the boundaries of childhood in the late modern era

Abstract

Although the modern Western concept of childhood is rapidly disappearing in the age of late modernity, this study asserts that childhood (as it is lived) has not disappeared but has been transformed. An integrated approach to childhood is employed in order to go beyond binary oppositions such as the Global North versus the Global South and/or childhood versus childhoods. It is argued that children while constructing their childhoods are confronted with processes of individualisation and globalisation through which new forms of adultization have emerged as concepts of ‘child consumerism’ and ‘child citizenship’. Beyond the opposing views involving the disappearance of childhood or its liberation, this study concludes that the concept of adultization can be used to problematise and analyse childhood in its current state.

How Do Disadvantaged Children Perceive, Understand and Experience Household Food Insecurity?

“…Firinci Orman's concept of adultization breaks down the binary of either negative or positive framings of modern children's experiences. Rather, as our results reflect, food insecurity presents children with both 'dangers and opportunities' [47] (p. 111).…”

“…Our study has responded directly to such calls and confirms that children are important voices in providing profound, fine-grain evidence of the impact of socioeconomic disadvantage on food access. The children in this study understood food insecurity in relational ways and their experiences demonstrate the ways in which adultization of childhood presents both dangers and opportunities for children as family members and, more broadly, as citizens [47]. The accounts showed that, whether through first or second-hand experience, children described food insecurity through their relationships with other people, through concern and empathy for peers, fear of siblings taking their food, the ebb and flow of house guests coming and going, or care and concern for a hungry father.…”

“…The study describes how children living with socioeconomic disadvantage articulate the characteristics and their experiences of food insecurity. It is important to expose how these experiences of poverty negatively impact children and blur the boundaries between childhood and adulthood [47]. The findings show children are active agents in shaping and making sense of their lives, even in times of significant disadvantage.…”

“…Some children in our study described how their parents prioritised serving the evening meal to the children first and only eating themselves if sufficient food remained. The protective action of parents illustrates what Firinci Orman [47] describes as them operating in a risk society, constantly seeking to shield children from the realities of disadvantage and global/local threats. Yet at the same time, our results also provide an empirical example of the "democratisation of the family" [47] (p. 109), where children are active citizens involved in shaping family and community life.…”

“…The protective action of parents illustrates what Firinci Orman [47] describes as them operating in a risk society, constantly seeking to shield children from the realities of disadvantage and global/local threats. Yet at the same time, our results also provide an empirical example of the "democratisation of the family" [47] (p. 109), where children are active citizens involved in shaping family and community life. Our results show how children are themselves actively engaged in protecting their peers and family, including adult relatives, from hunger.…”