Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2004

Department

Sociology

Abstract

Claims about the potential of early education and stimulation to enhance brain capacity have recently gained a prominent place in child rearing advice. This paper places the discourse that surrounds the new imperatives in its historical and sociological contexts and examines its implications for the experience and social expectations of mothers. In this light, the connections to the trend of increasingly child-centred and intensive parenting are explored as is the way in which these current claims fit within a neoliberal rationality where individual self-management, self-enhancement, and personal responsibility are seen as key.

Comments

This article was originally published in Atlantis, 28(2): 41-50. Reproduced with permission

Download

Included in

Sociology Commons

Share

COinS