Organisational dynamics and the role of the child in markets

Children have historically been the object and concern of many organisations, but the relations between such organisations, and between inter-organisational dynamics and the identities of the child and the adult, are often obscured. National primary education systems developed in the nineteenth century with multiple purposes, though central among them has been the inculcation of manners and morals within young members of the population, as well as the cultivation of a national habitus with strong we-feelings and responsibilities towards the state and nation. Using Ireland as an empirical case, we can see that increasingly over the course of the twentieth century, and especially during the second half of that century, children have been accorded greater rights and an assumed sense of individual agency. This was occurred within the context of greater existing and anticipated global integration and multiplying and intensifying social interdependencies. Such broad organisational relations have reshaped the image of the individual child, which in turn has reconfigured processes both within and between organisations, including the expected conduct of teachers. The expected expertise of teachers has shaped power relations between teaching unions and the state. The emotional significance of the child across many domains has led to increased inter-organisational complexity, as parent organisations and teacher interest groups (beyond the more formal union organisations) have mobilised for greater protection from consumer markets, and in particular advertising practitioners. Also, the focus on the future has involved ambivalent processes of preparing children for labour markets, including as yet unknown occupations, and allowing them freedom from the pressures of markets. The practice of marketing and advertising in Ireland contends with this ambivalence by relying on other dimensions of the changing vision of children - their individual agency, media literacy and capacity to decide for themselves.