Biologising Parenthood - A Lost Avant-Garde,

Thinking Allowed

BBC

Society & Culture, Science

4.4 • 997 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2015

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A lost avant garde: Laurie Taylor examines the tension between art & money in the contemporary art museum. He talks to Matti Bunzl, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, and author of a study which takes a rare look behind the scenes of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. He found that a commitment to new and difficult work came into conflict with an imperative for growth, leading to an excessive focus on the entertaining and profitable.

Also, biologising parenthood: recent years have seen claims about children's brains becoming central to child health & welfare policies. Pam Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Aston University, Birmingham, argues that this has led to a simplistic construction of the child and one which claims parenting to be the main factor in child development.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix,
0:06.0	the Science of Happiness Podcast.
0:08.0	For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want
0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.4	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.3	This is a Thinking Loud Podcast from the BBC and for more details in our terms of use and
0:37.0	much, much more about Thinking aloud, go to our website at BBC. BBC. UK.
0:43.2	Hello. I was at a birthday party in a restaurant yesterday evening and I had something
0:48.9	of a result there because as soon as I heard the first notes of
0:51.6	happy birthday welling up from the other end of the table
0:54.6	I engage the guests immediately around me in such a vigorous conversation that the dirge never got off the ground.
1:00.7	It simply dribbled away to you. You know, for years I felt much the same way
1:05.9	about this dreadful ditty altogether now.
1:08.9	When I was just a little girl. I asked my mother what will I be? Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here's what she said to me.
1:25.0	K, set off.
1:28.0	But I have to say that after reading a new paper in the journal Sociology of Health and Illness,
1:34.7	well I felt a new affection for Doris Day's sing-long fatalism,
1:38.9	her merry rejection of the very idea that she could have any personal influence on how her
1:44.4	children might turn out. After all parents particularly mothers are so regularly
1:48.8	told the opposite, told that their children's future is critically dependent
	...

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