Childhood and capitalism

the colonization of care and the early production of working subjectivity

Abstract

The article examines childhood as a social category historically constituted within the capitalist mode of production, focusing on the social organization of labor and the expropriation of time as central dimensions shaping children’s living conditions. It seeks to understand how long adult working hours, labor precarization, insufficient maternity and paternity leave, early institutionalization of care, and children’s involvement in labor activities affect family life, care practices, leisure, and human development. This bibliographic study is grounded in the Marxist tradition and developed in dialogue with contemporary authors in the fields of sociology of childhood, historical-cultural psychology, and social policy, drawing on classical works and empirical studies. The analysis shows that under capitalism, labor organizes social time and subordinates the reproduction of life to production demands, leading to the material and symbolic expropriation of family and childhood time. The intensification of adult labor weakens direct care, reduces everyday interaction between parents and children, and promotes the institutionalization of care as a functional response to restricted family time. Among the most precarious segments of the working class, the simultaneous lack of time and income creates the material basis for the early incorporation of children into labor, either as a supplement to family income or through domestic work and caregiving responsibilities. The article concludes that childhood—particularly poor childhood—is subjected to a structural process of time colonization and early production of work-oriented subjectivities, revealing the concrete limits of children’s rights in a society governed by capitalist accumulation.