In this assignment you will consider how the categories of youth and childhood vary over time and across cultures. To do this, you will answer a series of questions regarding photos you select of the jobs of young people in three different contexts: (1) 19th and early 20th-century America; (2) Present day America; and (3) Present Day India, Nigeria, or Brazil (select one).
In present day United States culture, childhood is a nurturing time of carefree exploration and personal development, where a childs main job is to go to school. However, this was not always the way we understood youth and childhood in the U.S., and it is not how it is understood across all countries. In fact, the concept of childhood is linked closely to social class identities. In other words, in societies (or families) that have more socioeconomic resources, childhood is a time period set aside for parental nurturing, carefree exploration, and personal development. On the other hand, in contexts of severe economic hardships, childhood is a luxury that many families cannot afford. Instead, children enter the labor force at a much younger age as a necessity of family survival (Barone 2015).
Explore the ways that the social identity of youth and the category of childhood vary across the three social contexts mentioned above by incorporating photos of the expected jobs of young people in each context. Using your selected photos and assigned readings (e.g., course text, resources provided below, supplemental materials provided by your instructor, and two additional scholarly sources).
