Have children become negotiators?

Summary, in English

Abstract. The source material consists of interviews with twenty Scandinavian children aged seven and eight. The interviews focus on two issues: first, the way in which the children describe their participation at home in decisions about food and meals; and second, children's housework. The qualitative data has been supplemented with various quantitative studies: we consider the children’s attitudes towards consumption, what they believe they are due, and what they feel they ought to contribute to the family. A distinctive and recurring feature, which we analyse in both a theoretical and an empirical light, is a readiness to negotiate, something which the children themselves are aware of. It is the children's participation in family decision-making, and in daily housework, that forms the background to our discussion of familial negotiation. In one way the children are excluded from the practical work at home, in another way they are not. The children have decided views on household consumption and on housework, and they try to influence the everyday interaction between children and adults. This interaction operates at many levels: practical help, responsibilities, wishes, and so on. It is in these negotiations between children and adults that their roles in consumption and production are shaped.

• Author: Ann Mari Sellerberg; Stine Thorsted
• Department/s: Sociology; Department of Sociology
• Publishing year: 2007
• Language: English
• Document type: Conference paper
• Topic: Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
• Keywords: children; consumption; household; tasks; negotiations; sociology; sociologi
• Status: Unpublished
• Research group: Sociology of Everyday Life