The New Labour era, and beyond: narcissism comes of age

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Hendrick
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Parent Education ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Breeding Ground ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Television Show ◽  
Parental Love ◽  
Contractual Approach

After describing New Labour's use of 'the child' as a form of human capital in social investment, and its penal ASBO programme as a breeding ground for childism, the chapter focuses on the government's innovatory ideal of disciplinary governance, encoded in neoliberal practice, to explain how, with reference to parent education, the behavioural approach to child-rearing grew to be regarded as normal and natural. The chapter discusses Supernanny, the reality television show, as an example of how, through the principles of narcissism, behaviourism and childism were popularised. The chapter argues that the effect of the neoliberal parenting industry on parent-child relations has been to negate the 'unconditional' in parental love in preference to a managerial and contractual approach that epitomises the general principles of neoliberalism and the specifics of the narcissistic temperament.

scholarly journals CHILD LABOR AND THE EDUCATION OF A SOCIETY

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Bell ◽  
Hans Gersbach
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Child Labor ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Continuous Growth

This paper analyzes policies by means of which a whole society in an initial state of illiteracy and low productivity can raise itself into a condition of continuous growth. Using an overlapping generations model in which human capital is formed through child rearing and formal education, we show that an escape from a poverty trap, in which children work full time and no human capital accumulation takes place, is possible through compulsory education or programs of taxes and transfers. If school attendance is unenforceable, temporary inequality is unavoidable if the society is to escape in finite time, but long-run inequalities are avoidable provided sufficiently heavy, but temporary, taxes can be imposed on the better off. Programs that aim simply at high attendance rates in the present can be strongly nonoptimal.

Approaches to Parent-Teacher Relationships in U.S. Early Childhood Programs during the Twentieth Century

1995 ◽  
Vol 177 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas R. Powell ◽  
Karen E. Diamond
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Parent Education ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Early Childhood Programs ◽  
Teacher Relationships ◽  
The 1960S

The nature of parent-teacher relationships in early childhood programs, including interventions for children with disabilities, is examined within a sociopolitical context across five eras of the twentieth century. Two general approaches are discerned: practices that view parents as learners in need of expert information and advice about child rearing, prevalent through the 1950s, and strategies involving parents as partners with educators in program decision-making, which began to surface in the 1960s. Attention is given to the influence of the Parent Teacher Association in the early 1900s as a response to societal changes stemming from the Industrial Revolution; contributions of the child study movement of the 1920s to parent education activities; effects of the Great Depression on ideas and practices related to individuals with disabilities; the growth of parent advocacy on behalf of children with disabilities; and the influence of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and widespread demographic changes of the 1970s on parent-teacher relationships. Current issues in forming and sustaining parent-teacher partnerships in early childhood programs are identified.

scholarly journals The Pioneers of Parents' Centre: Movers and Shakers for Change in the Philosophies and Practices of Childbirth and Parent Education in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Marie Bell
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Parent Education ◽  
Shape Change ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Changing Times

<p>This thesis presents the voices of 17 pioneers of the organisation parents' Centre, founded in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1952. They reflect on Parents' Centre's contribution to the welfare and happiness of young children and their parents, and the challenges and satisfactions for them as 'movers and shakers' of an entrenched system. The pioneers, 13 women and 3 men, were a group of professionals and parents educated in the progressive tradition who worked as volunteers to found and develop the organisation. They challenged the well-established and generally respected views of the policymakers of the 1950s about the management of childbirth and parent education for young children. They believed that the education and care of the child from birth to three needed to be brought into line with the progressive principles and practices which had been gaining ground in the schools and pre-schools of New Zealand since the 1920s and which emphasised holistic development, especially the psychological aspects. Using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory I set the study within the social climate of the 1950s to assess the contribution the changing times made to the success of the organisation. I identified the social and economic forces which brought change both in the institutions of society and within every day family life, particularly for young children and their parents. As researcher, I added my voice to their reflections while also playing the role of analyst. The study used an oral history method to record the stories of the participants from a contemporary perspective. My involvement in the organisation over 50 years gave me insider knowledge and a rapport with the people interviewed. Using a loosely structured interview I adopted a collegial method of data gathering. A second interview, two years after the first, informed the pioneers about my use of the interview material and gave opportunities for critical comments on my analysis. It became apparent that under the leadership of Helen Brew, parents' Centre was able to influence change. Analyses of the background of the pioneers and of the educationalists who influenced them in training, career and parenthood show that key influences on the pioneers were lecturers at Wellington and Christchurch Training Colleges and Victoria University of Wellington. The liberal thrust of these educational institutions reinforced similar philosophical elements in the child rearing practices experienced by the pioneers. Overall, the pioneers expressed satisfaction with the philosophies and practice they advocated at that time, their achievements within Parent's Centre, and pride in founding a consumer organisation effective for New Zealand conditions. They saw Parents' Centre as having helped to shape change. This study documents the strategies used by Parents' Centre to spread its message to parents, policy makers and the general public. At the end of the study the pioneers were in agreement that the change in the role of women, particularly as equal breadwinners with men, presented a challenge to the consumer and voluntary aspects of the organisation of Parents' Centre today. Some felt the organisation had lost its radical nature and was at risk of losing the consumer voice. Nonetheless, all the pioneers felt that Parents' Centre still had a part to play in providing effective ante-natal education 'by parents for parents' and a continuing role in working for change in the services in accordance with the needs of parents and children under three.</p>

scholarly journals Care, longing, and control

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Television Show ◽  
Cultural Products ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Political Studies ◽  
And Control

This article analyses representations of Conservative Laestadianism in contemporary Finnish and Finnish-American popular culture. Drawing from political studies, religious studies and cultural studies, the article sheds light on the ways in which Conservative Laestadianism is present in societal debate and in the cultural imagination. Focusing on religious corporeality, the article scrutinises the embodied practices of Conservative Laestadianism and the ways in which the representations participate in making sense of gender, sexuality, and power in religious communities. Contemporary understandings in popular culture are revealed through the detailed analysis of four cultural products of different genres depicting Conservative Laestadianism: a film entitled Kielletty hedelmä (Forbidden Fruit, 2009), a novel entitled We Sinners (2012), a reality television show entitled Iholla (On the Skin, 2013), and a play entitled Taivaslaulu (Heavensong, 2015). As a synthesis of the representations of Conservative Laestadianism, the article presents a dynamic triad of care, longing, and control. Furthermore, the article raises questions about the potential of popular culture in calling for a dialogue between Conservative Laestadianism and society at large.

scholarly journals Lights, Action, Naughty Bits: A Thematic Analysis of New Zealanders’ Attitudes to Naked Attraction

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
Angelique Nairn ◽  
◽  
Matthews Matthews ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Television Show ◽  
Sexual Discourse ◽  
Western Discourse ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
The Uk ◽  
New Zealanders

The sexualisation of culture has generated much debate in western discourse around its effect on the normalisation of nudity and sexual activity. The reality television show Naked Attraction has increased the dialogue around this debate after its airing, originally in the UK, and then in international territories. The show has been applauded for profiling diverse people, whether that be concerning sexual orientation, body image, gender or ethnicity. However, it has also been accused of showcasing pornography. To explore where New Zealanders’ attitudes were positioned on the show, we thematically analysed online comments from two local media entities and found that New Zealanders were positive on its nudity and approach to sexual discourse.

Developing and Spreading a Social Investment Perspective

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Jenson
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Capital Investments ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Capital Investments ◽  
Capital Development

In the mid-1990s, the practice of international organizations began to cohere around the social investment perspective, with strategies that were child-centred and advocated human capital investments for economic growth and social development. This chapter examines the World Bank, which endorsed the policy instrument of conditional cash transfers (CCT) to allow very poor families to invest in children’s health and education—a stock-plus-buffer strategy. Then it scans the OECD, which recommended early childhood education to ensure human capital development and the labour-market activation of parents—a stock-plus-flow strategy. Both organizations developed anti-poverty positions with attention to the intergenerational transfer of disadvantage and investments in human capital. This similarity has declined in recent years, as the World Bank incorporated the social investment perspective into its new inclusive growth frame, while the OECD turned its attention to problems of inequality rather than poverty and thereby associated itself less with the social investment perspective.

Promoting social goals through economisation? Social investment and the counterintuitive case of homelessness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Laruffa
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Social Goals ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Economic Rationale ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Logic ◽  
Investment Object ◽  
The Welfare State

Within the welfare state literature, critics of social investment have argued that its economic logic replaces ‘social’ considerations (for example, focused on rights/needs) and that this could reinforce the marginalisation of vulnerable populations, as they are unattractive ‘human capital’. Against this background, this article focuses on the counterintuitive case of the social investment approach to homelessness promoted by the European Commission. Through the comparison with previous EU initiatives in the homelessness field, the analysis reveals that while social investment partially replaces values-based logics with the economic rationale, it involves the same ‘solutions’ as values-oriented approaches, that is, preventing/combating homelessness can be justified interchangeably following an ‘economic’ or a ‘social’ logic. To explain this paradoxical result, the article draws from the political economy literature, which shows how disadvantage can be transformed into an investment object. Overall, this study suggests understanding social investment as a paradigm that attempts to promote the ‘social’ through its economisation.

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