How to Raise a Global Child: Reflexivity, Change and Divergence of Middle-Class Parenthood in Taiwan

• In Event: 134 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Paper Session. Globalization, Inequalities and Families

Abstract

To contest the current literature that views parenting styles as embodied, routinized class habitus, this paper examines childrearing as a practice of reflexive deliberation and monitoring in facing contextual discontinuity and globalized changes. Middle-class parents in Taiwan use a narrative of rupture to describe their difference from the previous generation and highlight their agency in initiating the changes. They also seek advice from Western experts to mark their cosmopolitan identity in distinction from lower-class parents with limited global exposure. Despite their shared class privilege, middle-class parents have developed a range of educational strategies as divergent responses to globalization. Parents at one end of the spectrum adopt the strategy of “cultivating global competitiveness”: they feel responsible for engineering children’s talents and preparing them for the increasingly competitive global labor market. Parents leaning toward the other end employ the strategy of “orchestrating natural growth”: they manage to shelter a “happy childhood” from institutional pressure by emigrating to the countryside and seeking a Western model of holistic education.

Author

• Pei-Chia Lan, National Taiwan University