1.1 Introduction
This book considers a range of factors which may be seen as influencing the context of childhood within the UK, putting forward the argument that childhood has changed in ways which are not in the best interests of either children or society. It adapts the concept of wicked and tame as first introduced by Rittel and Webber (1973) and presents this as an evaluative tool with which we might view childhood. In doing so, it develops an argument that the changing nature of childhood is having a negative impact upon children and young peopleās ability to achieve well-being within contemporary UK society.
For example, The Childrenās Society (2018) notes that since 2010 children are reporting less happiness with their lives, especially amongst children facing multiple disadvantages. Action for Children reports that 1 in 3 13- to 15-year-old children has mental health problems (2018) attributing this to a range of social factors. Similarly, the Mental Health Foundation (2016) indicates that mental health amongst children and young people is deteriorating. This is supported by the Care Quality Commission (2017) which indicate that the numbers of children and young people seeking help from mental health services have been rising over a number of years.
Some degree of caution may be appropriate in considering this rise. Sociologists have put forward arguments relating to how aspects of life may come to be redefined as medical concerns for some time. This medicalisation of life may result in an apparent increase in mental health problems as a consequence of changes in ways of understanding or categorising rather than in terms of actual, or real, changes. This may be identified, for example, within the growth of a therapeutic culture that is discussed later. However, the problems that reports, such as the ones referred to above, document regarding the significant growth in respect of the numbers of children and young people presenting with mental health problems cannot be dismissed as unfounded, as this issue does frame childhood today.
For Palmer (2009, 2015), UK society is toxic. James (2009) is more explicit and claims that life in Britain is making children mentally ill. We do not consider that there is any one reason for this, nor are the reasons simple. Instead, we point to the ways in which the lived world of children within the UK, what we might refer to as childhood, is shaped by policies, professional practices, and parenting in ways which are increasingly impoverishing childhood. In a society which seems preoccupied with well-being, we seem to be undermining the well-being of children.
When considering a broader picture of well-being, a number of accounts provide evidence which demonstrates that children in the UK fare poorly when compared to other countries (Aynsley-Green 2018; OECD 2009; Bradshaw et al. 2007). This is often presented as being a consequence of key measurements for material deprivation, poor health or low educational outcomes. The argument that we put forward here is concerned with the way in which the childās lived world increasingly provides fewer opportunities within which to develop and maintain resilience . In turn, we are arguing that well-being is supported by resilience. As such, a lack of resilience will therefore undermine well-being.
In making such a claim, we are working from the premise that there will always be pressures upon children. We recognise also that childhood is not universal, that some children will experience more pressures and some will experience fewer. Importantly, all children will experience some pressures which it is not possible to classify in this context as being any worse or better than others. At the same time, in focusing upon childhood within the UK, we are arguing that there have been a number of social developments over time which have increased the pressure on children. For example, we can see this in the intensification of education through an ever-increasing emphasis upon educational testing and examination results as is typified by the introduction of SATs in 1991 reinforced by OFSTED and League tables.
The example of SATs can be said to be one of example of a change which has widespread influence across society. In a similar vein, it can be argued that responsibility for children has become firmly located within families and with parents (Vincent 2017). The idea that it takes a village to raise a child is something that seems to have ceased to have meaning within contemporary UK society with a corresponding intensification of focus on the role of parents. At the same time, the experiences of children and families tend to be viewed in a manner which removes any consideration of their social or economic context such as experiencing poverty or facing adversity.
What will be considered throughout the book is that as UK society has changed in ways which increase the pressure upon children, including developments such as changes to parenting styles or the heightened sense of risk that permeates contemporary society, this can be seen to have led to a changed experience for children. It is the combination of a number of changes which have had a cumulative effect of reducing opportunities for the development of resilience by restricting what children are allowed to do or where they are permitted to go.
In relation to concerns about children, in recent years, the idea of well-being has become increasingly prevalent (Childrenās Society 2018; Bradshaw 2016; Taylor 2011; Ben-Arieh 2006; Sointu 2005). Alongside the concern with well-being though, especially with respect to childhood, is the associated concept of well-becoming. In fact, it may be fair to say that our actual concern with well-being is well-becoming. A major factor in the increasing levels of concern with children and their childhoods is the activity of UNICEF in reporting on childhood across the globe, especially in relation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), (UNICEF 1989). It is perhaps noticeable that concerns with well-being have arisen in a period when there has been a growing realisation that the social context of childhood, the childās lived world, may often be having a negative impact upon the child.
Our concern here then is with the lived world of the child. We argue that in the UK, childrenās experiences are being stifled. The stifling that we refer to is not the consequence of one particular change or development, nor is it carried out with that purpose in mind. In many ways, the stifling of childrenās experiences is wrapped up in ideas about what is best for children, or what it means to be a good parent . What will be demonstrated then is that there is a complexity to the experience of childhood and that it is subject to a number of competing discourses. To provide a way of appreciating how different factors impact upon childhood, we adopt the lexicon provided by Rittel and Webber (1973) as will be explored further in Chapter 3, and argue that childhood is becoming increasingly tame; importantly though we assert that this is not in the childās best interests.
The basis of the argument offered by Rittel and Webber (1973) is that society is often faced by problems, but whereas some problems can be addressed by logical or structured approaches, approaches which will consistently work as a consequence of the nature of the problem, other problems are resistant to such solutions. This leads to the distinction being drawn between problems which are tame, which follow certain patterns, and those which are wicked as a consequence of their complexity and the way in which a solution that may usually work will not work in all situations.
Instead of focusing on problems, as Rittel and Webber do, we consider the lived world as it is constituted by policy and practice. In using the term practice though we encompass both the practice of practitioners, and the practice of parents. Policy and practice can often be seen as seeking simplistic solutions to complex problems and following from this, we argue that tameness is associated with control. In general, though the aims of control are to ensure predictability and/or consistency. A tame childhood is a childhood wherein both spontaneity and the childās capacity to employ agency and to self-direct are reduced.
It is worth noting then, at this point, that we are not concerned with socialisation . Socialisation can be explained as the developing, or inculcating of the skills and capacities that are required to operate within any given culture and is a key feature of traditional sociological concerns about children. As part of this, socialisation is concerned with how children learn to behave. Taming goes beyond this, in that it is concerned with the social context in which childhood is experienced. Our argument is that actions which can be seen as taming childhood have the effect of reducing and impoverishing the childās lived world. In this book, we argue that wickedity and, especially, tameness can be used as an evaluative lens through which to understand social developments. These concepts will be explained fully in Chapter 3. Tameness is presented as being against the best interests of children in the long term and ignores the complexity of childrenās social experience. A tame childhood is unlikely to provide opportunities for personal growth or for the development and maintenance of resilience. Where Rittel and Webber provide the basis of the concept of tameness, we will also draw upon other theoretical approaches to explain more general social issues such as the way in which the power of the State shapes individuals in ways which result in docility, or the value of understanding how competing discourses influence policy and practice.
For example, in spite of differing theoretical approaches towards understanding childhood, for practitioners and parents, there is much to suggest that the empirical differences between children and adults, such as physical size and appearance, along with intellectual ability underpin the viewing of children through a deficit model. This lends support to seeing them primarily in terms of their future selves. This can be seen in the ways in which the relationship between childhood and education is often viewed from the perspective of human capital theory wherein education is reduced to the position of an investment (Hartog and Oosterbeek 2007). We do recognise that in academic circles, there has bee...