This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Langer, B. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Commodified Enchantment: Children and Consumer Capitalism

School of Social Sciences at LaTrobe University B.Langer{at}latrobe.edu.au

Within capitalist modernity, `children' and `culture' were ideologically positioned as `sacred' in opposition to the `profane' sphere of commerce and industry. In the last quarter of the 20th century, this romantic construction of childhood as a time of enchantment was appropriated by the `children's culture industry' and re-inscribed as a marketing strategy. Capitalist childhood was reconstituted as a time of consumption. In invoking the myth of the `sacred child', however, capital also elicits ambivalence about the `profanity' of commercial intrusion into the domain of childhood. Similarly, the narratives of `good' versus `evil' through which children's culture is organized can be deployed in opposition to the conditions under which global capital produces children's consumer goods. While the cultural tension surrounding the commercialization of childhood has diminished as money itself takes on the aura of the `sacred', the residual power of romantic mythology creates potential for critical engagement on the terrain of capitalist childhood.

Key Words: children's culture • commodification • enchantment • profane • sacred • toy production

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. Langer Research Note: Consuming anomie: children and global commercial culture Childhood, May 1, 2005; 12(2): 259 - 271. [Abstract] [PDF]

				B. Langer The Business of Branded Enchantment: Ambivalence and Disjuncture in the Global Children's Culture Industry Journal of Consumer Culture, July 1, 2004; 4(2): 251 - 277. [Abstract] [PDF]