Consuming Children

by Jane Kenway and Elizabeth Bullen

"Consuming Children is an important, exciting, funny and tragic book, addressing key issues for education in the 21st century. It dramatically charts the corporatising of education and the corporatising of the child. It is a book that demands to be read by teachers and policymakers - before it is too late. Sparkling with sociological insight and imagination, it is as clear as it is important as it is disturbing." - Stephen J. Ball, Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education, Institute of Education, University of London "Accessible, insightful and boldly argued,'Consuming Children' makes a refreshing contribution to current discussions of young people, schooling and the culture industry. Jane Kenway and Elizabeth Bullen draw on a strong base of research and scholarship to advance powerful critiques and interesting and workable pedagogical responses to corporate culturalism." - Colin Lankshear National Autonomous University of Mexico "'Consuming Children' offers a challenging perspective on one of the most pressing educational issues of our time - the changing relationships between childhood, schooling and consumer culture. Combining incisive commentary on established debates with new insights from empirical research, it should be read by all those concerned with the future of learning." - Professor David Buckingham Institute of Education, University of London * Who are today's young people and how are they constructed in media-consumer culture and in relation to adult cultures in particular? * How are the issues of pleasure, power, agency to be understood in the corporatised global community? * How are teachers to educate young people? What new practices are required? Buy delight, kids rule, adults are dim and schools are dull. These are canons of children's consumer cultures. In the places where kids, commodities and images meet, education, entertainment and advertising merge. Kids consume this corporate abundance with appetite. But what happens now that schools are on the market? Is this a form of corporate gluttony? Are designer schools educationally 'grotesque'? Who is conspicuously consuming at the educational emporium? How are students packaged? Which students have badge appeal? Who rules? Are adults taking their revenge on children? Are kids hungry to learn or keen to transgress? Where is their delight? Consuming Children argues that we are entering another stage in the construction of the young as the demarcations between education, entertainment and advertising collapse and as the lines between the generations both blur and harden. Drawing from the voices of students and from contemporary cultural theory this book provokes us to ponder the role of the school in the 'age of desire'.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0335202993
• ISBN13: 9780335202997
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Open University Press
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

some of it is interesting, some of it isn't

The book discusses television programs which appeal to children, business corporations which offer promotions in the public schools, and high schools whose reputation varies from good to bad. In some places, the authors promise but do not deliver specific information. They tell us that there are youth subcultures, such as the "ravers" and the "boarders," but tell us very little about them. They tell us that Nike and Adidas shoes are designed to create different images, but they do not tell us what those images are. They ask rhetorically what a backwards baseball cap symbolizes, but they do not even so much as speculate. Some of the book gives interesting concrete examples, but some of the book rambles on in incomprehensible Latin derivatives. The first chapter, which recounts the history of marketing since the Industrial Revolution, was not as interesting. I notice that there are two authors listed, so I wonder if the more interesting portions are by one author and the less interesting portions are by the other author. I have a few points of contention: The authors seem to assume that enjoyment and education as if they were mutually exclusive. But haven't you ever enjoyed learning? Haven't you ever learned about a subject because you were interested in that subject? I have. The authors seem to stereotype the present generation of children as irresponsible hedonists and their own generation as illustrious workers. But haven't you known couch potatoes of all ages? I have. The authors also seem to equate starched-collar prep education with good and lax discipline with bad. But I have known some very intelligent students who attended free schools in the Seventies. If the authors want to write another book explaining why strict discipline is better than lax discipline, that is their right. But they don't explain that in this book.

Provocative, Alarming and Empowering

Kenway and Bullens' close analysis of the intersection between education, entertainment and advertising in an increasingly market-driven society, is at times alarming and frightening, though ultimately empowering. The discussion of market penetration and the commodification of education and children, is painted in vivid detail, covering everything from school raffle sales, student 'brand' identity and school promotional materials. The concept of 'consumer-media culture' is deployed in order to understand the dynamic driving force behind social, generational and institutional changes, with advertising featuring as a central example of this. The discussion of generational differences is also cleverly argued, acknowledging the inherent differences between youth and parents/teachers; though slippage between generations is also permitted and discussed clearly. Although at times this text can seem all gloom and doom, with children and educational institutions seeming to be held at the mercy of the great fire-breathing dragon of 'consumer-media culture', woven throughout is also a vein of hope and encouragement for the future. Not only are students (from Victoria, Australia in this case) revealled to be quite astute when it comes to understanding the ways in which advertising, entertainment and education function throughout their own experience, more critical guidance is still needed. Kenway and Bullen offer such guidance in the form of pedagogical examples that seek not only to encourage students to be critical consumers of commodities, but active producers of alternative perspectives. Theoretically dense and expertly argued by two acclaimed researchers, "Consuming Children" is an essential addition to debates seeking to understand students and education in our rapidly changing world.