Lapsed ja pered tarbimisühiskonnas: Eesti emade käsitlused
Date
2009
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
Numerous multidisciplinary approaches to children in the context of consumer society may be
seen both in academic and public debates. The diversity of views derives from different
sources. Firstly, children can be described from liberal or protectionist positions. Secondly,
there are different viewpoints of the consumption process, which also involves different
practices like shopping or using up the products.
The first and most important task of this thesis was to give an analytical overview of the
approaches among Estonian mothers concerning children and consumption, since despite of
many researches, we do not find enough qualitative analyses of the parents’ representations.
Therefore, I conducted 12 in-depth interviews with Estonian mothers of children aged
between 5 and 15 and used also 11 interviews with similar structure carried out as research for
my Bachelor’s thesis (Uibu 2005).
The research showed that the approaches of Estonian mothers can be characterized by the
ambivalence, shaped by various factors. In addition to different representations of the topic,
personal involvement is relevant: if consumption has not directly caused any problems, the
parents do not pay much attention to it. Although the attitudes of Estonian mothers are
generally protectionist as suggested by the previous research (e.g. Pellja 1998) criticism
towards consumption and marketing mostly remains on the level of daily consumption.
Children may be manipulable, but the results of the manipulation are not perceived as a real
danger. Mothers whose aim is to protect their children do not see the more critical influences
of the fast-developing consumer society like children’s exclusion from peer groups or
bullying based on consumption possibilities.
The second research question focused on how mothers perceive the pressures which
supposedly occur within the process of consumption. The problems vary in different age
groups: the mothers of younger children described the conflict situations in the shop and the
necessity to educate and explain, with older children, peer pressure becomes major concern.
Clearly, the most crucial of the tensions perceived by the parents is the influence of peers,
73
widely discussed as “peer pressure”. For example, mothers of pre-school children clearly state
the fear of forthcoming school.
The research also showed an interesting pattern of social comparison with the richer families,
who, according to mothers’ explanations, may win the battle in the field of consumption, but
are definitely losing on emotional and pedagogical fields. “Rational” consumption pattern is
seen as normatively pedagogical with strong depreciation of hedonistic “over-consumption”
discourse. Mothers emphasize that the expenditures should be controlled and limited even if
there is an opportunity to spend more. Paradoxically, the value of consumption reveals itself
rather in deprived situations.
In Estonian context, significant changes in the society give a good opportunity to the mothers
to compare today’s children with their own childhood, bringing in interesting tendencies. For
example, mothers note that rich consumption society has decreased the (symbolic) value of a
single product. The parents also bring out the problem that the children’s creative ability to
play and come up with games themselves has decreased.
Keywords
magistritööd