On this edition of
In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with Allison Pugh, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and author of Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture. Many moms and dads find themselves navigating society's veritable obsession with the stuff of parenting—from the Bugaboo strollers to Bratz dolls to the brand-name college education and beyond. Pugh examines this trend and offers some surprising reasons behind parents' motivation to put their kids' material needs first. Pugh spent three years conducting ethnographic research: interviewing parents, volunteering, and observing in three different California schools, including a private school and two public schools, one low-income and one affluent. She found common themes among the study’s economically and racially diverse participants.
The need to belong transcends class boundaries, as does the parental tendency to comply with children’s desires. Pugh found that even those parents struggling to put food on the table and pay bills at the end of the month find ways to provide their kids with expensive, popular items so that their children achieve a sort of “dignity” among their peers.
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Posted By: John L. Hanson Jr.
Thursday, March 18th 2010 at 11:55AM
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